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Watching the de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito

Close up video with great sound of an iconic WW2 aircraft landing

Renown warbird pilots Keith Skilling and Dave Phillips put the Jerry Yagen-owned de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito through its paces and then come in to land several times -- view the action from up close!


Powered by two Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the largely wooden Mosquito was one of the fastest twin-engine fighter-bomber aircraft of the Second World War, capable of reaching a speed of 589 km/h.  Photo: Historical Aviation Film Unit

In 2012 Mosquito KA114 became the world's single airworthy de Havilland Mosquito aircraft when it flew for the first time in Auckland, New Zealand, after an extensive rebuild by AvSpecs. Prior to this there had not been an airworthy Mosquito anywhere in the world for over 17 years, and it seemed very unlikely that (due to the diffficulty in constructing new wooden fuselages) there would ever be another chance to see a Mosquito in the air.

However, New Zealander Glyn Powell dedicated many years of his life to recreating a set of moulds necessary to rebuild the fuselage of the aircraft, and these were then used to create a brand new fuselage for KA114. Following WW2 all known moulds had been destroyed, so the ability to utilise Glyn's ones to recreate the complex structure of the Mosquito fuselage has meant that in time we are likley to see more newly restored DH.98's take to the air.

This video shows KA114 performing a number of landings at Hood Aerodrome in Masterton (New Zealand). The aircraft was displayed here in January 2013 before it was finally dismantled and shipped to its home at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach in the USA.

Subsequent to KA114's restoration, a bomber version of the Mosquito has been restored and flown in Canada, and AvSpecs have completed their second Mosquito restoration (TV959) meaning that there is now a world-wide population of three airworthy DH.98's.


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