All 'spruced' up
Hawker Siddeley Aviation owned owned De Havilland Mosquito T.3 RR299/HT:E fires up her Merlins at the IAT held at Boscombe Down, 14th June 1992.
Dubbed the 'Wooden Wonder', the 'mossie' was built almost entirely of wood thus utilising existing carpentry skills which aided production of this incredibly fast and versatile aeroplane.
Powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines they could range far and wide into occupied Europe and outfly many of the enemy fighters put up to intercept them.
They were built in huge numbers almost like an 'Airfix Kit' where both sides of the fuselage were fully fitted out before literally being glued together and being made mostly of wood, this allowed precious aluminium to be diverted to other aeroplanes badly needed for the war effort.
After the war many air arms flew the Mosquito until faster jets became available.
A handful survived and along with this delightful example, by then civil registered as G-ASKH, they appeared in several films including the famous '633 Squadron'.
Thrilling the crowds at many airshows, tragically she met an untimely end on the 21st July 1996 when after loss of control during a display at Barton, she crashed into a wooded area killing both crew.
The AAIB report deduced the probability that the port engine had a slight loss of power during the fatal 'wing-over' causing an unexpected assymetric input from which the pilot appeared to recover but by then, too late.
The link here gives the full report and whilst lenghty it does show the level of investigation that any aircrash is subjected to so that recommendations and actions are taken to avoid such occurences happening again.
www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/dft_avsafety_pdf_...
Scanned print
All 'spruced' up
Hawker Siddeley Aviation owned owned De Havilland Mosquito T.3 RR299/HT:E fires up her Merlins at the IAT held at Boscombe Down, 14th June 1992.
Dubbed the 'Wooden Wonder', the 'mossie' was built almost entirely of wood thus utilising existing carpentry skills which aided production of this incredibly fast and versatile aeroplane.
Powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines they could range far and wide into occupied Europe and outfly many of the enemy fighters put up to intercept them.
They were built in huge numbers almost like an 'Airfix Kit' where both sides of the fuselage were fully fitted out before literally being glued together and being made mostly of wood, this allowed precious aluminium to be diverted to other aeroplanes badly needed for the war effort.
After the war many air arms flew the Mosquito until faster jets became available.
A handful survived and along with this delightful example, by then civil registered as G-ASKH, they appeared in several films including the famous '633 Squadron'.
Thrilling the crowds at many airshows, tragically she met an untimely end on the 21st July 1996 when after loss of control during a display at Barton, she crashed into a wooded area killing both crew.
The AAIB report deduced the probability that the port engine had a slight loss of power during the fatal 'wing-over' causing an unexpected assymetric input from which the pilot appeared to recover but by then, too late.
The link here gives the full report and whilst lenghty it does show the level of investigation that any aircrash is subjected to so that recommendations and actions are taken to avoid such occurences happening again.
www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/dft_avsafety_pdf_...
Scanned print