The Mosquito was one of the most remarkable planes of World War Two. The Mosquito – in full the De Havilland DH-98 Mosquito – was a twin-engine, two-seat bomber that was modified to serve as a fighter which could operate during the day or at night or as a photoreconnaissance plane. In whatever capacity, the Mosquito proved to be immensely successful – for a ‘wooden’ plane.

The idea for the Mosquito was forwarded to the government as early as 1938. The De Havilland design team based the Mosquito on their plane, the DH-88 Comet, which had won the 1934 London to Melbourne air race. De Havilland’s idea was simple – to power the plane with two Rolls Royce Merlin engines so that its sole defence, other than the skill of the pilot, was sheer speed to keep it out of harms way. The structure of the Mosquito was to be entirely made out of wood with a stressed skin of thin laminated plywood over a balsa core. The first Mosquito flew in November 1940, and it went into production soon after.

The first Mosquitoes were powered by two 1,250 horsepower Merlin engines. To enhance its aerodynamics, all tail surfaces were elliptical and the wings were sharply tapered. The original Mosquitoes were designed to internally carry four 500 lb bombs. The first flights of the Mosquito confirmed what the design team had hoped for – the fastest operational plane of its day. The Mks II, III ands IV could fly at 380 mph - 19 mph faster than the Battle of Britain Spitfire and 50 mph faster than the Hawker Hurricane.