Leicestershire-based charity The People’s Mosquito (TPM) has announced an “achievable, structured five-year engineering plan” to return de Havilland Mosquito RL249 to UK skies.
The news reportedly comes after close consultation with the historic aircraft experts at Retrotec, Ltd. and includes the launch of a dedicated fundraising campaign which seeks to raise “£499,000 over the next 12 months to deliver the successful front-end engineering, tooling and design and fabrication of the Mosquito FB.VI fuselage mould in the UK.”
The funding will reportedly support “crucial UK CAA due diligence from the outset of the project” and enable Retrotec’s engineers to analyze TPM’s massive technical library and develop exact computer aided design (CAD) models for the airframe. Additionally, the funding will allow Retrotec’s workshops to be reconfigured to accommodate the build and enable the fabrication the Mosquito’s unique fuselage mold, which will see the return of a manufacturing capability “not seen on these shores for more than 75 years.”
To ensure full compliance with UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations and aid a regular inspection regime throughout our restoration, The People’s Mosquito in conjunction with Retrotec, believe a UK-built airframe is essential to the project’s success.
With an estimated 40% of our total project cost dedicated towards ensuring we are fully compliant with strict UK CAA requirements, the first 12 months of the build will be essential to not only delivering an airworthy Mosquito, but also controlling project cost.
As previously reported, TPM’s DH.98 Mosquito FB.VI project is based around the remains of NF.36 RL249 of 23 Squadron, which were recovered in 2010. The aircraft had crashed and burned at RAF Coltishall in February 1949, leaving “very little, if anything, that is in an airworthy state.” However, the machine’s identification paves the way for a “dataplate restoration.” When complete, it will be used for “heritage, conservation and educational purposes.”
Additional details and the newly established fundraising portal can be found here.
(via The People’s Mosquito)
