By Skies Magazine | June 13, 2013 Estimated reading time 8 minutes, 25 seconds.
Generally, the return of a native Canadian Mosquito isn’t a cause for celebration – but in 2013, it has been. The homecoming, of course, is that of the de Havilland FB.26 Mosquito, ex-fighter bomber, now warbird, rebuilt in New Zealand for an American collector and flown into Canada for the Canadian Warplane Heritage (CWH) Airshow in Hamilton, Ont., this coming weekend, June 15-16.
The British designed de Havilland Mosquito was licence-built in Canada and Australia, and famously had an all-wooden structure. Since the tragic loss of the last flying Mosquito in 1996, there has not been a flying example of this aircraft anywhere in the world.
It took an international collaboration to get a Mosquito back into the air, but the core of the achievement was in New Zealand. Back in the 1980s, New Zealander Glyn Powell decided that to properly restore the Mosquito wreck he had acquired, he needed to create the manufacturing infrastructure de Havilland had used to build the all-wood wing and fuselage structure. Many told him it could not been done, and in fact such a restoration had never been tried before. However, Powell, and a very few helpers over many years, were able to recreate the moulds and jigs required, and then made the first fuselage for a static restoration destined for the Windsor Mosquito Bomber Group of Ontario.
Meanwhile, close to Powell’s workshop, at Ardmore aerodrome in New Zealand, Warren Denholm of Avspecs was discussing what would be the next best restoration project with their client, American Jerry Yagen of the Fighter Factory of Virginia. Denholm proposed a Mosquito, and Yagen, who claimed never to have heard of one, soon agreed.
A donor airframe was obtained from Western Canada from Ed and Rose Zalesky. Despite the Mosquito having an all-wooden structure, there are nevertheless thousands of metal and other material fixtures and fittings required.
Avspecs contracted Powell to build a fuselage, the one-piece wing and empennage. Once delivered to the Avspecs hangar, the company set about the long and complex task of fitting out the aircraft with all the required parts, either from the donor airframe, from ‘new old stock,’ or in some cases, by building the components from scratch. Two ex-RNZAF Rolls Royce Merlin engines were obtained from Australia, and refurbished by Vintage V12s in the USA. Some items could not be found after extensive searching, and these were fabricated, including some pipework and the spinner backplates. Many parts were (British) Air Ministry standard items; some of these bear Australian and Canadian markings, and were able to be refurbished for use. Other items were peculiar to Mosquitoes, like the extensive copper grounding strips required for earth returns in a non-metal airframe.
As an airworthy aircraft, the systems needed to work properly; however as an FB.26 (the Canadian-built version of the British FB.VI) the restored Mosquito also has four .303 machine guns and four 20 mm cannon – metal and resin replicas that are indistinguishable from the working originals.
The aircraft was tugged across to Airspray Ardmore Ltd, where it was painted, and each milestone of undercarriage swings, engine runs, taxi tests, etc., was prepared for and passed.
Finally, after a remarkably intense period, the aircraft was ready. After 16 years, it smoothly took to the air once more. Initial test flights for the aircraft, registered ZK-MOS, were undertaken by New Zealand warbird pilots Keith Skilling and Dave Phillips, and were closely watched by several hundred people. A select few of them had been critical to the success of the project, but none more so than Glyn Powell, whose vision many years ago ensured there was the infrastructure to make it happen. While it is a full airworthy rebuild of a Second World War Canadian-built aircraft, this can also rightly be seen as the first-ever ‘New Zealand-built’ Mosquito.
On the weekend after the first flight, a long-planned airshow to commemorate the event and restoration was held to huge public interest, with TV and news coverage worldwide. Over the following months, the aircraft appeared at several other New Zealand airshows, before being disassembled and packed into a container for a sea voyage to its new home in Virginia Beach, Va. This was not straightforward, however, as the single-piece wing, too large for any standard transport option, had to be fitted into a specially created 60-foot (18-metre) long container. After a 28-day sea trip, the Mosquito arrived on March 15 and was reassembled, registered N114KA, and test flown by an Avspecs and Fighter Factory team for the Warbirds over the Beach show in mid-May.
Soon after, it headed north to the CWH air show in Hamilton, bringing it closer to Downsview, Ont., where it was manufactured back in 1945.
