In 1943 the
Royal Navy was taking an interest in the RAF's new Mosquito bomber and issued a
spec for a carrier based reconnaissance bomber. DeHavilland modified a Mosquito
FBVI for feasibility trials of landing and taking off from a Fleet Carrier.
Modifications were limited on the first prototype to different
undercarriage shock absorbers, Merlin 25's with larger diameter 4-bladed props and
an A frame hook connected to an internally strengthened rear fuselage.
Armament was removed, gun muzzles were faired over and the cartridge doors
closed. The flying duty was given to Lt Cmdr (later Captain) Eric Brown OBE, DSC
who made 5 landings of LR359 on HMS Indefatigable on 25th March 1944
and claimed the honour of the first landing by a twin engined aircraft on a
carrier at sea. On the eighth landing, on the 26th, the hook tore off but he
opened up the engines and landed on the shore, not so easy in the days before
the angled deck was invented! ASV radar, folding wings and other changes came to
the eventual production Sea Mosquito as per Darius's example seen on ARC
recently.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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I wanted a navy
Mosquito for my RN/DeHavilland collections but couldn't be sure if the T3 was
silver or yellow. However while researching it I came across this
modification. It also allowed me to build the excellent Tamya Mosquito with only
a few minor differences. Changes were as described above on the real thing. The
4 blade propellers were made by filling the spinners with Milliput,
drilling the 4 holes instead of the previous 3 and adding back the blades. Extra
blades came from a second kit. The hook came from Aeroclub and is attached to a
brass rod running through the lower fuselage. Fairings are from scrap. Markings
were printed on an ink jet and the prototype "P" came from
a Tamya Meteor 1.
Main source of
reference was "The de Havilland Mosquito" by M J Hardy David &
Charles Ltd ISBN 0 7153 7367 6 and thanks to Mark Davies for his other reference
materials.
Colin
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