Author Description

The de Havilland Mosquito was the non-conformist among aircraft of World War Two as its ingenious wooden construction was revolutionary. Like most of the world’s greatest combat aircraft the Mosquito owed nothing to official sponsorship and its appearance relied totally on the dogged perseverance of its designers, Geoffrey de Havilland and C. C. Walker. Conceived originally in 1938 as a fast, highly maneuverable, yet unarmed day bomber, the Mosquito did not get official recognition until March 1940 when an order for fifty was given by the British Air Ministry. It soon proved to be an outstanding aircraft and quickly established a reputation for excellent flying qualities, an unequalled talent for destroying pin-point targets, and for having, by a large margin, the lowest loss rate of any aircraft in service with Bomber Command. Its versatility made it unique and the Mosquito was successful in such varied roles as a high and low-level day and night fighter, long-range day and night-fighter, fighter-bomber, minelayer, pathfinder, rocket-armed ground attack and high and low-level photo-reconnaissance aircraft.