Kiwi De Havilland Mosquito KA114

Not the Vulcan but just as unique.
Damn clever those Kiwi 'chipies'

Kiwi de Havilland Mosquito KA114 Departure from Auckland International Airport - YouTube

 

Re: Vulcan XH558

Fabulous footage all round......and many thanks for the Mosqito info......it looks fantastic. My late chum's father would have loved that, a very gifted Cambrige mathematician, he actually carried out stress calculations on this plane at the design stage. His grandson recently showed me some of his work......it was mind boggling........some other interesting stuff too, when he later worked at Farnborough.

Again many thanks, much appreciated.........

 

Re: Vulcan XH558

Magic to see a Mossie in the air again. Just hope at some point it's allowed over here for a circuit of the shows...

 

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Just like our 'chuffers' these old warbirds need a millionair or two to keep them going. This Mossie is off to join the collection of Jerry Yagen at Virginia Beach USA who has already got "one or two"!!!!!!!! vintage aircraft.

Fighter Factory | Fighter Factory

 

Re: Vulcan XH558

Here's the TVNZ news report about the first flight (link courtesy of my in-laws!). Almost unnoticed is an Avro "Annie" starting up in the background, and also a very quick view of the fuselage moulds. I believe there are plans for what will be essential "new build" mossies from those moulds. (There doesn't seem to be half the angst over new builds in the aircraft world as in the railway world!)

WWII Mosquito takes to the skies - National News | TVNZ

Tom

 

Re: Vulcan XH558

There are many restorations in the warbird world that are pretty much new builds save the odd small component or two and as you rightly say, hardly anyone worries about it. There's a gorgeous 92 Sqd Mk.1 Spitfire operating out of Duxford these days. It carries the serial and data plate of the one that ditched on the beach at Calais during the Dunkirk evacuation. How much of the original has gone in to the rebuild I know not but who cares? I certainly don't, it's a pristine early Mk.1 Spitfire and that's all that matters IMHO.

 

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Nice to see the owner lavishing praise on the folk who have restored the Mosquito, stating skills like these no longer exist in the USA, but I'm not sure about that statement about skills being lost. I wonder if he could be persuaded to fly it home via the UK.................if it's possible........just a wish, probably going back via sea..

 

Good idea that man............

 

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Had she been completed on schedule the plan was to spend the summer season in the UK and then ship her to the USA. As she was late, the owner will ship her direct to his museum as from his point of view, there is no point in delaying her return to the USA until the end of the 2013 UK air show season.

 

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Drat....double drat.....

 

There is another Mosquito about to fly but that's over the Pond too in Canada. In some ways it grieves me to see yet another USAF warbird imported to the UK by a warbird enthusiast when we don't have a home used airworthy Mosquito. On the other hand it's their money to do with as they wish but I'd still swap half a dozen P-51s for a single flying Wooded Wonder.

 

Did'nt we have one airworthy over here a few years ago?........always wanted to do the Oshkosh show....might have to now

 

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There is a really big warbird restoration scene in NZ - not really sure of the reason why, it is maybe to do with a combination of having a suitably skilled workforce but at probably lower wages than would be acceptable in the US or GB. Sadly (for the Kiwis at least), a lot of the restorations are done on behalf of clients overseas (especially in the US), so planes get finished, test flown and then shipped away. There are some good museums though with some interesting stuff (though nothing on the scale of Duxford / Hendon). There are also probably some real treasures lying undiscovered: at the Wigram museum in Christchurch (ex RNZAF airfield), when the military cleared out, they left all their stores virtually untouched. Apparently there are all sorts of 1930s aero engines still in the packing cases they were shipped over from England...

My father-in-law rues to this day that he couldn't persuade his father - a Catalina ground mechanic during the war - to buy a Mosquito at the end of the war when they were being sold off cheap. Apparently farmers were buying them for the engines, which they used to blow away morning mists from the vineyards at key points in the year to stop the crop being spoiled. Those were the days... There is a very dilapidated ex-barnyard Mosquito in the Ferrymead museum that is in the process of being restored - some photos here. Wings Over New Zealand - Ferrymead dH Mosquito Update

Tom

 

We did, RR299. She crashed during a display at Barton aerodrome, Manchester on 21st July 1996.

 

Yes....I remember now....thanks for jogging the grey matter.....

 

A fantastic achievement, now the wooden formers are made any one in the UK fancy funding another one?

 

there was another also owned by Doug Arnald that flew for a short time before being sold to the states , i can remember seing it flying from fairoaks one afternoon