The most beautiful aircraft ever built, in my opinion.

Thanks for posting. My grandfather and his brother were woodworkers in private business before WWII. Despite being about 40 years old at the start of the war they were both called up by the RAF to work on wooden airplanes. This video really took me back.

Whilst the Spitfire is the most beautiful plane ever built, the Wooden Wonder is my favourite prop aircraft of all time. Stunning.

As much as I love the p51, this is the real number one plane of all time. Just has to be.

My favorite plane and so glad Canada has restored a beautiful one. And thank you Canada for building so many for the war effort.

My dad was in Lancasters in WW2. He got to go up in a Mosquito once and absolutely loved it.

That very first Mossy.... my Dad helped to build it... he was foreman on that job.....

The first composite airframe stealth aircraft

0:35 "It went against the grain of the times" What a perfect (and ironic) thing to say about a revolutionary wooden airplane.

De Havilland went outta box...simply brilliant!

Excellent video! My uncle, Jim Lawless, flew Mosquitoes in WWII, and in fact, was shot down and killed in one. His C/O at the time was none other than Russ Bannock! Pat Lawless

It was nice to see George Stewart interviewed. He was probably the most-experienced Canadian Mosquito pilot. He also trained Chinese pilots on the type. One of the nicest guys I ever met.

My father, Sqn Ldr Hardy Poyntz DFC, flew Mosquitos during WW2. He talked a bit it, however your video tells me lots. Thanks for that. My father went on to be a career RCAF officer. He was very involved with the 'Dew Line', early warning system. Then we were stationed in Great falls Montana, (two big SAC bases there). Hardy being Canada's man for NORAD there. We were there during the Cuba missile crisis, me being to young to really know what he was dealing with. I do have a print of a mosquito he gave me, signed by DeHavilland himself. Dave Poyntz, Edmonton (can contact via facebook under that name)

The most beautiful aeroplane along with the Spitfire'

Y'all have done a most professional job producing all of the videos about the Mosquito. I love 'em. Thank you so much!!!!!!!

There's a very strong sense in the Anglo world of the individual genius, which is not evident in the more Teutonic expressions of engineering excellence. I'm living it, perhaps alive because of it and still have great respect for it. It's the freedom to say, "No, I think you're wrong, Sir and this is why." It also helps to have access to either your own or someone else's deep pockets and their own freedom to say, "I like this idea!"

The "smooth streamlining" was aided significantly (according to Lee Atwood) by the incorporation of Meredith Effect into the cooling system negating most, if not all, of the cooling drag (like the Mustang).

wow first visit to channel thankyou to my canadian brothers and sisters this made a staunch englishmans heart swell great to know you guys hold the mossie in such high regard as do i a simply beautiful machine with a spinetingling sound

Be humble... Much was built before you came into the world... Bravo Mosquito

Yes several years ago I met Wilfred neat who was involved in designing its propellers modifications were made so they were particularly efficient at low level

Not just one of the finest aircraft of WW2 , I will stick my neck out and say one of the finest aircraft ever built, with looks and noise to go with it.

My old man donated the instrument panel for this plane in Calgary. He spent countless hours as a kid sneaking into the de havilland afb near Toronto and dismantling the panel and bringing it home, to save something from them, as they were being destroyed after the war. I think he was only 13 or14 and knew it's worth.

The Mossy, the first stealth fighter/bomber. Made from wood so it had a very low radar profile. Fast and beautiful. :) I would love to be able to fly in one.

57MM cannon largest auto loading gun ever installed on a aircraft in WW2 was used to sink subs first engaged a JU 88 with the big gun one shot ripped the engine off the JU 88. The firepower was nothing like anyone ever seen before.

What's not to love about them? Always one of my favorites

The Fighter Version of Mosquito is My Favorite WWII UK Plane.

I love that French Canadian accent... reminds me of my time at Fleurimont ,PQ when I was in French language training to fly in Central Africa...!!! Magnifique, mon ami...!!!

"made of wood" ..... Actually, they were 'cold moulded' on laminated framing, an amazingly stiff and resilient method of construction, oft used in high speed boats, even today.

An incredible aircraft and a classic example of a visionary designer giving people something they didn't even know they needed.

The ultimate badass of WWII with 2 of the best piston engines in the World., wonderful, regards, UK.

Thanks for the video My Dad was involved with the making the wooden frames for the first prototype.Very proud

It had Photo Reconnaissance, Bomber, Fighter Bomber, Ground Attack and Anti-Shipping variants. Some variants carried 4000 pound bombs, others 57 millimeter 6 pounder cannon, or perhaps just 4 303 machine-guns and 4 20 millimeter cannon. But perhaps the most dangerous payload was the photographic cameras that revealed every movement of Germany's ground forces. It's no wonder that the Luftwaffe awarded 2 air to air kills to any pilot who could down one of these beauties.

They bolted 2 merlins to plywood, thats amazing in itself !

Some of Great Britains worst aircraft resulted from Air Ministry specifications that put far too many requirements on the design brief. Geoffrey De Haviland was able to concentrate on the essentials and create an outstanding aircraft first because he retained control of the design. Once he demonstrated its superiority, it didn't take long for others to see the light and think of uses for the Mosquito. I once had a tiller for my boat made by an elderly Welsh gentleman on the Lleyn Peninsula who had worked for Gillows furniture makers. He told me he made Mosquitos during the war as he made me a perfect new tiller in front of my eyes.

I am not sure DH used wood just because aluminium was rationed. While that certainly was an advantage of wood, they built the dh-88 comet race plane and the dh 91 albatross with the same type of construction. They were also innovative in minimizing cooling drag with the radiators in the leading edge. So the versatility came from the aerodynamics (efficiency meant less fuel required per mile, so more miles or more bomb load), light weight due to wood construction and weight savings from not having to haul around extra crew, armour and guns. That left it able to carry more bombs, guns or gas.

Brilliant presentation.

Goering was tremendously envious of this aircraft . Ironic cause his "zestroyer" bf110 was supposed to be it's rival but required a fighter escort by the end of the Battle of Britain.

The one thing that you miss out is that De Havilland were experienced at designing and building wooden aeroplanes. The DH88 Comet that won the England -Australia air race was wood. The beautiful Albatross mail plane was wood and used many of the techniques passed on to the Mosquito design. It was a natural decision for them to build a high speed high altitude plane from wood.

They didnt want her,then when they saw her perform they couldnt get enough

A lot of modern airplanes, especially the newer stealth warplanes, are made from composite materials. Usually, the skin is made from some kind of carbon fiber fabric, covered with some kind resin liquid. Usually, it’s called something like “radar absorbing material” or RAM. In the Haviland Mosquito, the resin is called lignin. It binds together individual tree cells. According to the Wikipedia article, “Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of vascular plants and some algae.[1] Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity and do not rot easily. Chemically, lignins are cross-linked phenolic polymers.” Geoffrey Dehavilland figured this out in the 1930s!

So nice to see old footage with those slowly revolving hazy/blurry propellers as opposed to what today's digital wonders give us.

An instructor told me he watched a mock dog fight where a Mossy completely outclassed a P-38.

It was an outstanding multi role aircraft, with brilliant engines. The design was unique, with an incredibly strong yet light air frame.

There is an operative Mosquito at Virginia Military Air Musem outside Virgina Beach. It's quite Awesome!

An excellent production as are others in the series.

thank you, gorgeous aircraft, loved it from the minute I saw it as 3 year boy

Wood is being "rediscovered" today by sea kayakers. Most performance sea kayaks and paddles are either cheap heavy plastic, fiberglass, or light, but very pricey carbon fiber. There is another option - wood. A mahogany and fiberglass sea kayak has the light weight and strength of carbon fiber as the cost of plastic.

Having the music volume lowered would make this a watchable video

WONDERFUL, I LOVE WATCHING THIS, A TRUE, AND VITAL STORY, OF WINNING AGAINST ALL THE ODDS.

The Wooden Wonder, well done Canada our allies..

Love this twin engined plan.

Excellent video spoilt only by the music overpowering the speakers.

I had the please of seeing one in Everett Washington. It was incredible in person.

The "Mossy" was an astounding airplane-!!

Best stuff I've seen in a while.Ignore the blithering trolls with bone spurs and keep up the great work so others may learn something about real people,real sacrifice,real bravery. And the magnificent Merlin.

There's a lot of bollocks being spoken here about the use of wood. The use of wood is not the radical thing that de Havilland did as the Air Ministry had issued the specification B9/38 for a bomber made of woodand metals other than light alloys wherever possible. The specification called for a economic cruise speed of 250mph at 15,000ft with a payload of 4,000lb of bombs. This was issued in 1938, long before WW2 started - de Havilland, Bristol and Armstrong Whitworth were all approached to produce designs to meet the specifications. In June 1938 mock-upsof the Bristol and AW designs were inspected; de Havilland declined to enter a design. Bristol dropped out as they already had plenty of work, leaving the field clear for the production of thecless than ideal Albermarle, which was now to be a reconnaissance aircraft capable of dropping bombs. What was radical was the deletion on the defensive gun turrets and the reliance on speed as a defensive measure.

At 4:27 and 6:08 - flying on one engine. It was called variously 'the Timber Terror' and 'the Wooden Wonder' for good reason. My favourite piston-engined aeroplane.

I believe the last FLYING restored Mosquito is in the aviation museum in Virginia Beach, VA. I've seen it !

i used to play 2 old games on playstation one called panzer general and allied general the mossy was one of the best all around planes in the game great fighter and great ground attack.

The parts were built in diverse sites. One of them was the back yard of Mallard and Flying Scotsman designer Sir. Nigel Gresley at Salisbury Hall.

Bring back a modern version of the mosquito for counter insurgency. Fast, powerful, and lethal.

Being allowed to sit in the cockpit of the prototype at Salisbury Hall, when I was a boy, almost certainly shaped my life. (It's still there, I think the only WW2 prototype still in existence.)

I'd give you 10 +++ if I only could... Great idea to tell about this particular airplane...

just gorgeous.

It was so respected by the Germans they tried, and failed to copy it. Any Luftwaffe pilot that managed to shoot one down was credited with 2 kills.

An amazing history,arguably,the most extraordinary aircraft in service with RAF

Proves sometimes you have to go backwards to move forward

From the days when Britain could design and build something that was the best in the world. Geoffrey De Havilland was a genius.

I was lucky enough to see the first fuselage built here in New Zealand, and Kiwi's were told you can never make a Mosquito again!, never say never!!

The De Havilland factory was situated close to the large Beechwood forests of Herfordshire/ Buckinghamshire. where the skilled furniture makers were. Perfect situation

Mosquitos, because the only thing better than a Merlin is two of them.

What a beautiful plane would love to see one fly

It was the WW 2 stealth aircraft that means not much of a radar signature. Wood? the end justified the means.

The biggest advantage of wood was it wasn't imported. If Germany could cut the sea lanes, aluminum imports would become critical. The Mosquito was a no nonsense machine. A wood plane is more labor intensive than aluminum, so the factory that uses aluminum can have higher production rates than with wood. However, these high production rates required stamping mills for compound curves in aluminum. These are huge presses and very specialized tools that were not commonly available in 1940. One lucky Nazi bomber could shut down a factory for months. There existed many craftsmen who were adept at steaming wood and laminating plywood to form compound shapes. If the lucky Nazi bomber knocked out a converted cabinet maker's shop, that simply took a few percentage points off the overall production rate. There was a need for final assembly buildings, but these were essentially big barns and the tools inside were not that rare. The concept was brilliant in that it leveraged traditional craftsmen and their skills in decentralized locations. Plywood layups need room and time for the glue to cure. The patterns needed could also be made of wood. The Mosquito used neither exotic materials nor technology. It leveraged available resources and wood wasn't rationed.

revolutionary.. it was made of plywood instead of aluminium... wow such amazing... such innovation.....

despite arduous tasking, the lowest loss rate of the war if there is one tool that describes the British approach to organised mayhem, its Mosquito People tried to duplicate her and failed they doubled the reward to remove her from the battle and failed Mosquito is the work of genius and the delight of flight

Let's be clear. Despite propaganda:- Balsa and ply where no more abundant in wartime England than aluminium. The fact is this firm did not know how to make a metal plane. Even their postwar Vampire jets were made of wood. Mosquito was still an absolutely amazing plane. It would be interesting to see a comparison of what various WW2 planes cost per unit at the time of them entering service. I'm guessing the Mosquito would have been a relatively cheap unit notwithstanding the two Merlins.

Beautiful plane my favourite of ww2

Another Great Video !

My all time favorite fighter bomber...Goering was so pissed that a bunch of piano makers were kicking the Luftwaffe's ass!

Refreshing that Britain isn't pilloried in a KZfaq vid.

what a great video!

I loved the footage I haven't seen before but you spoiled it with the music track

Thanks for this video. It is a shame that it has the background music . The sound of the two Merlins is sufficient. Where I was brought up in the county of Buckinghamshire, England, there was once a huge furniture industry and in my village of Penn Street was the firm of Dancer and Hearne, who in great secrecy, built the wings for this wonderful revolutionary aircraft. The original stealth bomber maybe...?

Along with having the distinction of fulfilling the most different roles, it was surely the only fighter bomber, to fulfil the job of keeping a civilian aircraft company’s route open through the war, which was BOAC’s Swedish route, and it was truly the first precision bomber, which on several occasions, bombed single buildings in a built up area of the city, with only one mistake, which happened because of a crashed plane........ And it was the safest plane of WWII, because it lost the fewest planes per thousand raids, for the duration of the war........... Also, just like the Jaguar E-Type was called the best looking car(by Enzo Ferrari himself, et al), I believe that it surely deserves the accolade, as the best looking plane of the war, as well as everything else...........

The Mosquito had one of the lowest casualty rates of any aircraft during WW2. It also had roughly the same range and bombload as a B17, but with many less crew on board and with much more speed. The US Air Force should have just made 10,000 of these and had a great time dropping bombs all over Germany.

Interesting that some of the latest aircraft rely upon composite materials for strength and lightness - think carbon fibre and epoxy. And there was the mosquito built from composite material - laminated wood and epoxy (equivalent). A jump ahead really. Not instant antique.

This was one of the finest planes in of all time pity it wasn't for sport and not war, or even just pleasure.Also my carpentry teacher worked on them.

Loved these fast light bomber fighter hot rod of bomber fighters

If there is just one shame to the design it's the fact that it has resulted in us having no original flying examples with us to this day. No aircraft of the time was designed with that intent in mind of course, but the metal aircraft have been preserved and restored whilst the wooden mosquitos have just rotted away. The museum exhibit examples that were saved will never be in flying condition again.

When you really think about it who were the bravest, those who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mosquitoes or those who flew outdated slow planes like the Swordfish the Blenheim and many others. My father worked on Avro Anson's, 'the flying greenhouse'. They had a lead ball on the end of an aerial wire that had to be would down and up on landing. An Anson came in to land with the aerial down. Poor cow (4 legs & milk) never felt a thing, lump of lead at about 80 mph right between the horns.

By war’s end De Havilland had developed the Mosquito into a new design, the De Havilland Hornet. It’s completely forgotten now, but the Hornet was THE most beautiful plane ever designed... and according to test pilot extraordinaire Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown was one of the most perfect fighters he ever flew.

It originated from a proposal to adapt the wooden de Havilland Albatross 4 engine airliner into a bomber. de Havilland wanted to place the Mosquito pilot and navigator in tandem as it would be even faster but RAF policy at the time insisted on bomber crew being side by side and you have to do what the buyer wants.

Back ground music AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

During the 30s the Germans conceptualized the schnellbomber, or fast bomber, which could outrun enemy fighters. The Ju88 was the closest they got to it. But the Hurricane and especially the Spitfire (and Bf109) were too fast for the concept to succeed, or so it seemed So it can be imagined how the Germans felt when Geoffrey De Havilland perfected their original concept. The Mosquito even looks faster than the Do17 and Ju88. The difference is that De Havilland and his champion in the RAF, Wilfrid Freeman, trusted the concept more to the extent that they got rid of everything that would slow the plane down- defensive guns included. The Germans hedged their bets in comparison, and came up short.

This was a very good bomber and fighter and fast enough for air reconnaissance it was a triple threat

A sexy plane and a badass of the sky.

All aircraft had shortcomings, but in some theatres they excelled. That said, thank christ there are real experts opinions from those who actually flew them and against their foe. Gunther Rall respected the Spitfires and the Hurricanses, but preferred the P51 mainly for the longer range. For me the RAF paved the way for the allies to fight from the UK mainland.

Didn't they eventually mount 57mm auto cannons to Mossies and go tank busting? Also what I have always wanted to know: When a Mossy came back with battle damage, how did they repair it? I cannot imagine anyone just spackling bullet holes in an aircraft.. I imagine they had wood hardener back in those days... Did they just fill with wood hardener and spackle? It explains why the mossy was such a versatile combat aircraft.

German state sponsored military Projects resulted in some astounding pieces of hardware. Britain....pre war patents the jet engine.....perfects the cavity magnetron and has great designers turning out the mosquito...the Lancaster. ...and The typhoon. Imagine if ,like germany,britain had seriously funded it's projects. We may well have had the Gloucester meteor,with portable radar in 1940.... What shock that would have been