Nov 2009

November 2009 Mosquito Update

Work has been moving along during the last few months on the restoration of the deHavilland Mosquito we are restoring. Below are some pictures from the last few months of assembly. The fire walls are installed, the cowlings are going on, the radiator structures are installed. Work is being done to install fuel lines and fuel selector cables. The air filter system on the lower cowlings has been removed, overhauled and reinstalled. The engine mounts have been paint stripped and inspected by means of ultrasonic and magnetic particle testing. These are the original engine mounts for the aircraft. The results of the engine mount inspections came back as great news, they were found to be as good as new! The mounts have since been primed and painted and are ready to be re-installed on the aircraft. The 2 Rolls Royce Merlin 113/114 V-12 piston engines have been shipped to Vintage V12s in Tehachapi, California for complete restoration. Vintage V12s has been restoring vintage aircraft piston engines for 30 years and is one of the world’s leading vintage engine restoration companies.

As you can imagine building a Mosquito isn’t an easy task. The mechanics have been faced with many challenges in the assembly due to the lack of reliable reference materials available for the Mosquito. Working off old microfiche and manuals has left the mechanics a bit puzzled. To get a better understanding of what they are facing, Mel and Marty traveled to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in October to visit the EAA AirVenture Museum. The Museum is one of the most extensive aviation attractions in the world. The museum is home to a de Havilland D.H. 98-B Mosquito. With the kind permission of Kermit Weeks, Mel and Marty were able to take over 500 pictures for reference.

We would like to thank the EAA AirVenture Museum staff for all of their help! THANK YOU!