62 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS
B
DE HAVILLANDMOSQUITOMOSQUITO
(^19182018) DE HAVILLAND MOSQUITO
W
hen the Panavia consortium
was established in 1969, it
announced the swing-wing
Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA)
programme. This took on the name
Tornado in 1974 and the strike
version is featured on page 92. Among
the press corps at the launch were
some who remembered the original
MRCA, conceived in great secrecy
during 1940.
The de Havilland Mosquito was
a remarkable aircraft that mastered
the roles of fighter-bomber, night-
fighter, intruder, bomber and photo-
reconnaissance. The concept was to
create an aircraft so fast that it did not
need defensive armament, and could
be built quickly and relatively simply.
The inspiration was the DH.4 high-
speed bomber of World War One - see
page 6.
In his autobiography Sky Fever
(Hamish Hamilton, 1961) Sir
Geoffrey de Havilland CBE described
the rationale: “We were confident
that this formula would be as novel
and as vitally needed as it had been
before and that, provided we did not
permit orthodoxy especially in the
shape of officialdom to stifle us, we
could do better still the second time.
Our scheme was to discard every item
of equipment that was not essential,
design for a two-man crew and no rear
armament, relying on high speed for
defence. [It was] estimated that a year
could be saved in production due to
the simplicity of wood construction as
compared to metal”. He concluded:
“All this gave us a wonderful
opportunity to make an outstanding
war aeroplane in almost record time.”
Sir Geoffrey’s 30-year-old son,
Geoffrey, piloted the prototype on
its maiden flight at Hatfield on
November 25, 1940. It had been
designed and built in just 11 months
at Salisbury Hall, London Colney.
Today, that machine, W4050, is back
Top right
Mosquito IV DK333 of
109 Squadron, Marham,
early 1943. PETE WEST
Right
Marham-based Mk.IV
DZ353 was issued to
105 Squadron in late
- This machine, and
its two crew, failed to
return from a raid to
Rennes, France, with
627 Squadron on June
9, 1944. KEC
at its birthplace, as the centre piece of
the de Havilland Aircraft Museum.
The fighter, fighter-bomber and
photo-reconnaissance Mosquitos are
covered in the sister publication, RAF
Centenary Celebration Fighters. The
initial bomber version was the Mk.IV,
the prototype having its maiden flight
on September 8, 1941.
From the start the Mk.IV exceeded
expectations, its large bomb bay could
accommodate four 500lb (226kg) and
later even more destructive powerType: Two-seat light bomber
First fl ight: November 25, 1940, entered service November 1941
Powerplant: Two 1,250hp (932kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin 21 V12s
Dimensions: Span 54ft 2in (16.50m), Length 40ft 9in (12.42m)
Weights: Empty 14,600lb (6,662kg), All-up 20,870lb (9,466kg)
Max speed: 380mph (611km/h) at 17,000ft (5,181m)
Range: 2,040 miles (3,282km)
Armament: Up to 2,000lb (907kg) of ‘conventional’ bombs or a single 4,000lb
‘Cookie’ bomb
Replaced: Bristol Blenheim from 1941, Vickers Wellington from 1942, Bristol
Beaufi ghter from 1943, North American Mitchell from 1945
Taken on charge: 6,439 of all variants in Britain, 7,781 including overseas production.
Sub-contracts by Airspeed, Percival, Standard Motors. Also by de
Havilland Aircraft in Australia and Canada
Replaced by: Handley Page Halifax from 1943, de Havilland Vampire and Venom
from 1951, English Electric Canberra from 1952DE HAVILLAND MOSQUITO IV
1941 TO 1963