MOSQUITO BOMBER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1942, Page 3

MOSQUITO BOMBER

MORE DETAILS MADE KNOWN FAST AND FORMIDABLE MACHINE. POWERS ALREADY DEMONSTRATED OVER GERMANY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY. October 27. Details have now been revealed of a new British high-speed reconnaissance bomber, the De Havilland Mosquito. Unique among contemporary operational types in being of wooden construction, it is a twin-engined monoplane powered by Rolls Royce engines which are fitted to three-bladed D.M. :hydromatic air screws. The engines are underslung. The design is excellent, with a beautiful appearance, giving the impression of high speed and extreme manoeuverability, and the simple wooden construction of the plane lends itself to widely dispersed manufacture. The armament may consist of four 20 millimetre cannon and four .303 machineguns. The wing span is 54 feet 2 inches. The overall length is 40 feet 9J inches, and the height, with the tail down, is 13 feet 3 inches. The undercarriage and tail wheel are retractable.

The Mosquito has been largely developed from the famous De Havilland Comet, which won the Macßobertson ail’ race from England to Melbourne in 1934, but it is bigger, more powerful and much faster —not only the fastest bomber ever built, but one of the fastest aeroplanes. Already it has penetrated far into Germany in daylight to bomb important objectives with precision.