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The wooden monocoque method of aircraft construction was perfected by the Albatros firm in Germany during WW I. The de Havilland Aircraft Company of England adopted the same technique for the D.H. 88 Comet racers of 1934, and the beautiful D.H. 91 Albatros airliner of 1937. The Albatros achieved excellent performance on quite modest Gipsy Twelve engine power through a clean aerodynamic form, and low frontal area through wing leading edge air intakes. These were the proven elements, combined with greater Merlin engine power, that gave the D.H. 98 Mosquito its remarkable performance.

The many sceptics may perhaps be forgiven for thinking that there was no use left for an ancient construction technique. Few other state of the art aircraft firms in major powers were still using it. One of the ironies of WW II was that the German aircraft industry had evidently forgotten how to build a wooden airplane, when they had invented the technique in the first place.

The success of the Mosquito triggered a last wave of wooden aircraft construction worldwide. Germany produced the Focke Wulf Ta 152 Moskito, a 1943 knockoff designed by the outstanding engineer Kurt Tank, but it could not equal the performance of the de Havilland Mosquito and was dropped.

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The D.H. 91 Albatros.
1937
Hatfield, England
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Mosquito fuselage construction.
1942
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Mosquito fuselage construction detail.
1942
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Manufacturing the fuselage shells.
1942
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Workers are glueing on reinforcing strips.
1942
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Mosquito fuselage sections.
1942
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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The side panels.
1942
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Fuselages of the B. VII.
1943
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Fuselage halves ready for joining up.
1943
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Joined fuselage halves.
1943
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Complete Mosquito fuselages.
1944
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Final assembly plant.
1944
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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Problem with mass production.
1944
Downsview, Ontario, Canada
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