The UK-based group known as The People’s Mosquito has been making excellent progress with the rebuild of their deHavilland DH.98 Mosquito NF.36 RL249. Their partner in New Zealand, Aerowood Ltd., is close to completing the manufacture of a set of wing ribs for the project as you will see from the accompanying images. Aerowood, as many of our readers will know, is closely involved with several well-established Mosquito projects currently underway in New Zealand, and the quality of their work is superb.
With the manufacture of wing ribs coming close to completion, Aerowood has begun working on parts for the tail section as well. As you will see from the accompanying images, the assembly of the wing ribs is an involved process requiring precision jigs and a lot of labor. Thankfully, the non-recurring engineering costs associated with manufacturing the jigs has already been covered by previous projects.
The People’s Mosquito has also successfully obtained the all-important charitable status from the Charity Commission in the UK. The People’s Mosquito Ltd. has received the Registered Charity Number 1165903, which will mean that the organization can now more realistically appeal for major sponsorship from potential benefactors as well as support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In addition to the newly-acquired charitable status, The People’s Mosquito have reserved G-FBVI for RL249 on the British Civil Registry. While RL249 was actually an NF.36 variant, she will emerge from restoration as an earlier FB.VI which is more representative of the type in WWII service.
While this is going to be a complex, not to mention expensive undertaking, any lingering doubts that we may have concerning the viability of the People’s Mosquito should be erased by the considered commitment already demonstrated by the group and the significant results they have already achieved. They have clearly made a thorough evaluation of the requirements and worked out a realistic path forwards to completion, including all of the important inspection processes and paperwork. Time-to-completion will largely depend upon how quickly they can raise the necessary funds of course, and this is where the public can help. Please do visit their website (click HERE), and consider purchasing something from their online store (Click HERE) or making a donation (click HERE) to this eminently worthy project! WarbirdsNews will be sure to keep our readers informed of their progress.
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Richard Mallory Allnutt's aviation passion ignited at the 1974 Farnborough Airshow. Raised in 1970s Britain, he was immersed in WWII aviation lore. Moving to Washington DC, he frequented the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, meeting aviation legends.
After grad school, Richard worked for Lockheed-Martin but stayed devoted to aviation, volunteering at museums and honing his photography skills. In 2013, he became the founding editor of Warbirds News, now Vintage Aviation News. With around 800 articles written, he focuses on supporting grassroots aviation groups.
Richard values the connections made in the aviation community and is proud to help grow Vintage Aviation News.
Having heard of this project, I was immediately full of hope that it would come to fruition and was quickly gratified to learn the company to carry it out and expected it to appear within due course.
I was then (much) further excited to hear that the donor was a NF.36, night fighters being my particular interest, albeit very much a ‘lay’ interest. I have read as much on the subject as I can find, so I was a little disheartened to also hear that it wasn’t going to continue as this marque, but as a FB.6…
However, I console myself with the thought that it is far better to have a FB.6 than no Mossie – so good luck to you all in your fund-raising, and to those involved in the reconstruction!
Let’s hope our wait isn’t too long, and thank you!
If I may, I would like to supply Mr Davis with some more details. Although RL249 will emerge as an FB.VI, we have planned – by a simple process – to be able to convert the aircraft to closely resemble many other Marks of Mosquito. These include (but are not limited to) T.3, FB.40, PR.41, unarmed Mark Six, FB. (TT) VI, prototype Sea Mosquito, FB.26, and yes, an NF.II . Obviously, the physical changes will take a few weeks, with the biggest cost being that of the repainting. You could say that by doing this, TPM is simply following the well-respected example of the BBMF.
Please visit our website for more details, and ways in which you can help the work go faster!
Kind regards
Ross Sharp
Director of Engineering
The People’s Mosquito Ltd
awesome, I love the mosquito. Being from Canada we have a connection to the mosquito as well. I wish the museum I am a member of had one. When one did show up for a few days of display I was awe struck at its beauty. Keep up the good work people. p.s. Canadian warplane heritage museum. Hamilton Ontario