OT: Mosquito flies again. The only one.

[Evan]

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/warbird-flies-again-video-5108120

Beautiful job of restoration.

[MaxHeadRoom]

Another flash back! The Mozzie!
In my boyhood, every school kid new the outline and sound of every aircraft, friend or foe, usually the first words were, 'Is it one of ours' ?
There was the story of the mosquito being a death trap if you had to bail out in a hurry, you exited straight into a prop!.
Max.

[oldtiffie]

Here is a run-down on the Brit "Mosquito".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_bomber

Here is a Brit similar air-craft:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Beaufighter

[DFMiller]

Thanks Evan
I question the claim as the only one airworthy.
Kermit Weekes has his at Oshkosh and there is one sitting at Victoria Air Service almost ready to go.
Dave

[The Artful Bodger]

There was the story of the mosquito being a death trap if you had to bail out in a hurry, you exited straight into a prop!.
Max.

That sounds odd, the props are actually well forward.

[Evan]

The biggest advantage of the Mosquito is that it was the first stealth bomber in respect of radar. The early radar was low frequency and required large expanses of sheet metal to reflect a strong enough signal to be detectable.

[RandyZ]

Thanks Evan
I question the claim as the only one airworthy.
Kermit Weekes has his at Oshkosh and there is one sitting at Victoria Air Service almost ready to go.
Dave

Kermit's hasn't flown for years. The wood has deteriorated too badly to be airworthy.

[MaxHeadRoom]

That sounds odd, the props are actually well forward.

If you notice 40sec into the clip, the pilot door seems well forward?
I never saw it confirmed but it circulated widely at the time.
Max.

[oldtiffie]

Another flash back! The Mozzie!
In my boyhood, every school kid new the outline and sound of every aircraft, friend or foe, usually the first words were, 'Is it one of ours' ?
There was the story of the mosquito being a death trap if you had to bail out in a hurry, you exited straight into a prop!.
Max.

In this part of the world during WW2 the USAF P38 "Lightning" was called/alleged to be the "pilot killer" if he bailed out and was hit by the rear tail-plane which extended between two booms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P38_Lightning

Something like the Brit "Vampire"/"Sea Venom" - which were not so dangerous when the pilot and navigaror ejected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Vampire

[loose nut]

A Mosquito could fly the same bomb load to Berlin as a B-17 bomber with only two on board instead of 10 or more and had a very much lower casualty rate. After the war a new version was built called the Hornet. It can be distinguished by the propellers being forward of the nose of the plane. They served in Malaya during the communist insurgency but suffered badly from rot.

[Peter S]

I don't have the info to hand, but there is an important back story to this "first flight". There is a man and his team in South Auckland who are making new Mosquito fuselages (and wings etc).

Fuselage construction: http://www.mosquitorestoration.com/gallery02.shtml See "Gallery" for other wing construction etc.

They have spent years making the moulds and this is the first of their handiwork to fly again. This has apparently been the critical problem with Mosquitos world-wide - no one has been making fuselages - it is a major undertaking. I am guessing we will see a few more airworthy examples in the future now that this major problem has been beaten.

There were quite a few Mosquito's in NZ after WW2, I guess that is where the local interest started, also Kiwi pilots flew them in WW2. I used to know a WW2 Mosquito pilot - he told me thay did their Mosquito flight training in Canada prior to going to Britain.

[loose nut]

Personnel from all over the world (even from the US) were sent to Canada to learn the proper way to get killed in the sky's over Europe during the war. About 1000 pilots and 2000 crew per month. Around 125 airfields were set up for training in the first few weeks after the start of the war, many still exist as private or community airports.

[sasquatch]

re: to learn the proper way to get killed:

That is about it!! Sad history!!

[Evan]

Our airport is left over from WWII. That is why it is 7000 ft long and the runway is two feet thick. You could land a 747 here in an emergency. There is also another similar airport about 100 mi west of here in the middle of nowhere close to the Puntzi Mtn. weather station. It is used now for the water bombers in summer as a forward base.

[MaxHeadRoom]

In this part of the world during WW2 the USAF P38 "Lightning" was called/alleged to be the "pilot killer" if he bailed out and was hit by the rear tail-plane which extended between two booms:

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I remember the Vampire well and its predecessor, the Meteor was a common sight as well.
Max.