The plans were given to the nonprofit organization The People’s Mosquito, which used them to repair a de Havilland Mosquito so that it could fly again
The Telegraph reports that only days before bulldozers were scheduled to destroy their hiding location, more than 20,000 engineering drawings and blueprints for the de Havilland Mosquito were discovered in a corner of a wartime factory.
The microfilm cards with the drawings on them are regarded as the most comprehensive collection of engineering drawings for multi-role aircraft. The plans were given to the nonprofit organization The People’s Mosquito, which used them to repair a Mosquito so that it can fly again.
The blueprints were discovered earlier in 2017 by an engineer just before the former de Havilland factory in Broughton, close to Chester, was scheduled for demolition, according to John Lilley, chairman of The People’s Mosquito.
He said: “He understood the tremendous historic value in these engineering drawings and how useful they could be. The building itself was soon to be demolished and the contents discarded. It’s incredible to think that they might have been lost forever.”
The organization, according to The Telegraph, aimed to restore a Mosquito night fighter that crashed at Royal Air Force (RAF) Coltishall in February 1949 while it was assigned to No 23 Sqn.
Ross Sharp, engineering director for the project, said: “As you can imagine, restoring an aircraft that is 70 years old presents several challenges, one of which is a lack of information on the building techniques, materials, fittings, and specifications. These plans enable us to glean a new level of understanding and connection with the brilliant designers who developed the world’s first, true, multi-role combat aircraft.”
When Sir Geoffrey de Havilland-designed Mosquito entered service in 1941, it was among the world’s fastest operational aircraft.
The plane was created from pieces of wood that were pressed and bonded together in molds to preserve limited metal supplies and for speed of production, earning it the moniker “The Wooden Wonder.” Exactly 7,781 were finally built, with the last one being completed on November 15, 1950. During World War II, 6,710 of them were supplied.
The public first learned about the Mosquito after a successful raid by four of them on the Gestapo Headquarters in Oslo on September 25, 1942, which took place at the tail end of 1941. They were attacked by two Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 190s that were in the air when they arrived while flying above Oslo with their bomb doors open. The Fw 190s gave up the chase 60 miles out to sea after losing track of the others after one was shot down.
The Mosquito was the ideal aircraft to conduct reconnaissance missions over Germany due to its rapid speed. Now the discarded drawings revealed early planes to carry torpedoes, possibly to attack the Tirpitz. There is also a design titled “Mosquito Mk I, Tropics” that shows how to store desert items in the rear fuselage.
Only three mosquitoes remain in flight today—two in America and one in Canada. Only a small portion of the estimated £6 million cost of the restoration has been raised thus far.
Mr. Lilley concluded: “No other aircraft has amassed such a remarkable combat record in so short a time, flying so many different types of mission and excelling in each one. Even today, it remains one of the world’s most successful multirole combat aircraft, and it was all British, made by men and women who only a few months earlier had been building furniture and mending pianos.”
Additional source: Royal Air Force
Photo by Crown Copyright, De Havilland photographer for Ministry of Aircraft Production