De Havilland Mosquito NF30
History Known under the nickname Wooden Wonder, the Mosquito is born as a private venture. The De Havilland company was specialised before WWII in the building of fast aircraft in wood. As soon as 1938, De Havilland proposed to the British Air Ministry a project for a fast two engine bomber mostly build in non strategic material. There was no interest in the official spheres and De Havilland started the project on his own funds. In 1940, the British authorities changed their opinion and placed an order for a version for reconnaissance. The prototype accomplished its first flight in November 1940, and was followed soon of two other prototypes : a fast bomber and a night fighter. The high performances of the Mosquito made that it entered service in its three basic configurations. The aircraft quickly revealed as one of the best allied night fighter of the conflict, being even brought into service in the American air Forces. The bombardment versions, thanks to their capacity of carrying and to their operating range, were used for raids, of day like night, over all occupied Europe, to Berlin, Poland or Czechoslovakia. The continuation of the conflict saw the appearance of versions suited for interdiction and sea attack. Mosquito was useful even like an airliner between Great Britain and Sweden and a special version with folding wings was produced to be based on the Royal Nany aircraft carriers, after the Second World War. Built in 7.747 exemplars, it was used by 19 air forces in the world, in 40 versions and sub types. The last Mosquitoes were withdrawn from the service, with the Royal Air Force, in 1962. Night fighting During the first World War, the belligerents quickly understood the advantages of night raids on the objectives of their adversaries. The bombers, slower than the fighters, compensated for the relative inaccuracy of the night bombardments by the possibility of escaping the defences at the favour of the darkness. The Germans organised as soon as 1914 raids on London or Paris, initially with airships, then with twin-engine bombers and later four-engined planes. Facing the threat of the night bombardments, it took several years for the Allies to set up effective defences based on the use of decoys, projectors, anti-aircraft guns and planes patrolling certain sectors determined in advance. Little progress was done in the Twenties and Thirties. At the end of the Thirties, British and Germans experimented the use of the radars on the ground which were going to make it possible to guide the interceptors towards the bombers of day like night. Since 1939, the British had the first rudimentary radars which could be assembled on planes. The radars on the ground guided the night fighters to the vicinity of the bombers until the fighter can complete the interception thanks to its embarked radar. In October 1940, during the Battle of Britain, the Germans mounted night bombardments on the principal English cities. It was on this occasion that the British night fighters equipped with radar had their first successes. In the continuation of the conflict, the Germans established a particularly effective night fighters force against the night bombardments of the Royal Air Force on Germany. Some of the units of these Nachtjagers operated from Belgian bases, namely Brustem, Sint Truiden or Florennes. The British, Americans and Germans also developed a whole range of means of guidance for their night fighters as well as jamming techniques of the radar to protect the bombers, whose electronic countermeasures which equip today F16's are modern developments. In Belgium, some American night fighters operated from September 44 to protect Antwerpen against V1's raids. After the second World War, new generations of night fighters such as the Meteor NF11, also present at Brussels air Museum, were put in service until the appearance of the all weather fighter in the middle of the years 50. This new type of fighter was conceived from the beginning to operate day like night. The CF100 is the first aircraft of this kind used in Belgium. The arrival of these aircraft permitted to the air forces to ensure, 24 hours a day, defence of the airspace.
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The
Mosquito of
the Museum At the beginning of 1945, the Royal Air Force signed the contract 1576 -(sas) - C23 for the delivery of 345 Mosquitoes to be build by the factory De Havilland of Leavesden close to Watford in Hertfordshire. In this series was included 27 examples of the NF30 night fighter version. The RK952 was produced in this production batch. The aircraft made its first flight on May 22, 1945. It was transferred to a maintenance unit, the 218 MU at Colerne where its specific equipment (radar, electronics) was mounted. The war being finished, it did not join an operational unit but is transferred to another Maintenance Unit, the 10th MU, at Hullavington to be stored. In 1947, the Belgian Air Force established night fighters squadrons in the cadre of the treaty Western Union, precursor of NATO. The aircraft selected to equip these new units was the Mosquito NF30. The RK952 was sold to Belgium on October 23, 1951. It was only delivered on September 4th, 1953, after being revised at Fairey Aviation in Ringway. It receives number MB-24 ND-N with the Belgian Air Force and was the last Mosquito delivered to Belgium. When the MB-24 was brought into service, the oldest NF-30's were already in the process to be withdrawn from the service following the excessive tiredness of metal on the landing gears. The aircraft was also being exceeded technically, the Air Force decided to acquire new planes, Meteor NF11, and not to make repair the NF30. The MB-24 having already been modified at the time of its revision at Ringway continued to fly within the 10th Squadron of 1st Wing at Beauvechain. It was mainly used for missions of navigation, calibration for the radars on the ground or plastrons for the interceptions exercises by Meteors NF-11. The MB-24 carried out its last flight on August 18, 1955 (Capt. Jos Wijnen, Henri Boels). It was put at the retirement on October 17, 1956 at Beauvechain and officially transferred to the Museum on March 17, 1957. It was then exposed on various bases of the Air Force at the time of air meetings. Its last output took place in 1968. It was transported to Koksijde to be repainted there and exposed at the occasion of the 50ième anniversary of the Belgian Military aviation. Since then, it is exposed at Brussels. In 1979, a team of voluntary starts the restoration. After a new painting in 1984, the first team of restoration disperses. It had to be waited until 1997 so that a new team takes the work again focusing on the handing-over of all the internal equipment of the plane. The only specimen of Mosquito NF30 in the world should find all its splendour soon.
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| Testimony
If ever you flow on De Havilland Mosquito your testimony can be published here |
| Performances Motorization 2 Rolls Royce Merlin 113,
114 of 1690 HP |
| Restoration project manager
Eric Dessouroux is in charge of the restoration of the Mosquito. Eric already worked on the Spitfire of the Florennes Museum and on the Spitfire Mk XIV of the Brussels Museum |
| Sources Daniel Brackx,
Eric Dessouroux BAHA |
| Photoshow Profils |
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