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MOSQUITO AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION
AT DOWNSVIEW

2nd Edition (English/French) Written and Edited by

RICHARD BANIGAN

for the

TORONTO AEROSPACE MUSEUM
at PARC DOWNSVIEW PARK

A Community Memories Project - Copyright 2008

Copies of this CD may be purchased at "Runway 33", the Museum Gift Shop.

Do you recognize anyone in these photos? Any errors or omissions?
Please let us know and we will include this information in the next edition.

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Photo Credits:

* Bell Aerospace (via Stuart Howe)
* Canada Aviation Museum
* Canadian Forces
* Canadian Warplane Heritage
* Bob Goodings Collection (TAM)
* J. Grant Glassco Collection (TAM)
* Fred Hotson
* George Stewart (some via Stuart Howe)
* Jack McNulty Collection
* Joe Holliday Collection (TAM via Larry Boccioletti)
* National Archives of Canada
* Norm Malayney
* R.A. "Bert" Joss
* Richard Banigan
* Russ Wood Collection (TAM)
* The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada (now Bombardier Aerospace)
* Toronto Aerospace Museum
* Toronto Telegram Collection (Scott Archives, York University)
* Smithsonian Institution

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The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited was founded in 1928 as a branch of the famous British firm started by Geoffrey de Havilland. The first building was just a modest canning shed at de Lesseps Field in Mount Dennis (Weston). Soon a larger portable shed with a rounded roof was added, and this became the first building at Downsview when the company moved there in 1929. For awhile, the letters MOTH were painted on the roof so as to be visible from the air.

Amazingly, this historic shed with the rounded roof still exists at Parc Downsview Park today. In the photos you can see that the shed was located on the south side of old Sheppard Road until 1942, and then was moved again to its present location across the street. This shed is likely the oldest aircraft manufacturing facility surviving in Canada. The building that now houses the Toronto Aerospace Museum was constructed on the south side of Sheppard in its place.

Even in 1942, the Downsview airfield was an idyllic setting of trees and open grass meadows situated on the height of land, paved runways were just getting built, and the City of Toronto was far off in the distance. The war changed everything here.

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Plant 2 of The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada.
1942
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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The de Havilland Canada facility.
1942
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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Chartered Gray Coach buses.
1944
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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The day shift.
1943
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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Drawing of Plant 2.
June, 1944
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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The mechanized Mosquito production line that opened in June, 1944, finally allowed Plant 2 to reach its full potential after the numerous delays of the previous year. Output became more than Flight Test could handle. It soon became common to see dozens of Mosquito aircraft parked around the airfield, and to hear the constant roar and crackle of Packard Merlin engines.

The idea for movable carriages for aircraft assembly came from the Hurricane plant in Fort William (now Thunder Bay). In the U.S.A., both Ford and General Motors were using similar production techniques to mass produce aircraft. Since the carriages were called corvettes, the system was dubbed "Dickinson's Navy", for L.V. "Dick" Dickinson, the head of plant engineering. One war worker recalled that it could be very cold in the de Havilland plant in winter because they had to open the hangar doors so often.

Although de Havilland Canada moved to a new plant at the south end of the Downsview airfield in 1954, parts of Plants 1 & 2 were still being used in the late 1990s.

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Dozens of late model Mosquitos.
1945
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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The de Havilland Canada plant.
1945
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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Production of de Havilland Canada.
WW II
Downsview, Ontario, Canada

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Victory Lancaster bomber.
1945
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Workers at the back of Plant 1.
1944
Downsview, Ontario, Canada