Mosquito's in the U.S.

[Victor Archer]

Mosquito B.8, N37878 Las Vegas, 25 July 1956

Mosquito FB.40, N9909F (ex ZK-BCV), Whitman Air Park

Mosquito FB.40, N9909F (ex ZK-BCV), Whitman Air Park

Mosquito FB.40, N9909F (ex ZK-BCV), Whitman Air Park

http://www.pbase.com/marauder61

[Stevo]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Stupid work computer... only thing I see are little red x's.

[speeddemon]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

I would have loved to be able to bum around Whiteman Airpark, or Van Nuys, or any of a number of Southern California airfields back in the '50's and '60's.

I mean sheesh...look at that. Two Mosquitos sitting there on the ramp next to Cessnas and Pipers like its' no big deal.

Nice stuff, Vic. Did you ever go around with your dad when he was on the airport adventures?

[Victor Archer]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Nice stuff, Vic. Did you ever go around with your dad when he was on the airport adventures?

Yeah ... from age 1 month - to the last air show he went to, Nellis '03. About 40 years worth of trips or so...lol
Unfortunately he never made it to Reno.

[FENCELINER]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Nice c/g

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l1RV4O9vUqU

[SpinB]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

...oh the humanity.... You have some of the coolest archive shots I've seen! Keep on scanning!!! Thanks, Victor!

[jarrodeu]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Is it rare to have old pictures like that look so good? I have seen lots of pictures that my dad has and they look like crap compared to those. Truely beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.

Jarrod

[64chrysler300]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

my Dad kept loose track of those Mossies at Whiteman back then....they moldered into the ground at some point and the remains got scrapped according to him. He was just sick that sombody would let that happen. He won't talk about Prestons Pride anymore...he was there when it flew in. Of course back then, they were just old airplanes....the fuel in their tanks was worth more when surplused

[kiwiracefan]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Hey Victor, cool photos, good to see some photos of ex RNZAF aircraft. Just a little history for you on N9909F,
The Airplane was built by DeHavillands at Hatfield in 1945, it served with the RAF as PZ474 with no 80 & 132 OTU. It was ferried from the UK by a kiwi and english crew. It was brought on charge at RNZAF ohakea as NZ2384 on April 5 1948. It was ferried south to RNZAF Taieri for storage, where it remained. Declared surplus on SR.4103 dated 17 July 1953 and sold to Aircraft Supplies Ltd, Palmerston North. Entered the New Zealand Civil Aircraft Register as ZK-BCV on 02 September 1953. Ferried to the United States and entered the US Civil Aircraft Register as N9909F with Insurance Finance Corp, California. Cancelled from the US Register in December 1970 and the remains were purchased in 1973 by J. Merizan who intended restoring it to static condition.
The other thing is, that being built in the UK, the airframe was a FB VI, the FB40 was the same airframe built by De Havilland in Australia.
I really enjoy your work Victor, and its awesome to see such well preserved images from your dads collection

[deepsky]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Victor, Which picture of N9909F is the oldest, Red/White or bare metal?

[Victor Archer]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Thanks kiwiracefan, I have some of the history but not all.

Victor, Which picture of N9909F is the oldest, Red/White or bare metal?

The silver pics are the first ones (photos 2 & 3) the red & white (photo 4) was a year or two later. There are complete log books for the photos, I'll go have a look through them and find some dates.

The first photo is N37878 (ex CF.FZG) and was in the 1949 Bendix race:
Don Bussart was the pilot, race #81 Mosquito 25 N37878, Finished 4th, Time: 5:50:31 Speed: 343.757 mph.
N37878 (ex CF.FZG) was one of two Mosquitos that World Wide Aviation bought from War Assets Corp. in Halifax, N.S. for about $1,500 each. FZG had only 45 hours on it.

[Peashooter]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Victor, Which picture of N9909F is the oldest, Red/White or bare metal?

Don't forget, Mossies are all wood.

http://www.fighterfactory.net/airplane-gallery/dehavilland-mosquito-photos.php

[First time Juke]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Don't forget, Mossies are all wood.

http://www.fighterfactory.net/airpla...ito-photos.php

Was it like the Dh Vampire plywood_balsa_plywood sandwich structure ?

[Funflyer]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Fuselage was plywood-balsa-plywood and the wing was two layers of birch plywood sandwiched around spanwise spruce stringers. Rad

[Bill Marsh]

Re: Mosquito's in the U.S.

Ina speed dash what was fastr....

F82
or Mos'q????

BM