
Australian made Mosquito FB40, serial A52-511, NA-A, No.1 Squadron RAAF,
Morotai May 1945. This is the second RAAF Mosquito skin I've done for 1 Sqn,
the foilage green being the other.

It's a pity there's no hi-rez Mosquito, it's a bit above my ability to make
a high-rez skin/3DZ.

Features non-mirrored codes and Mosquito cockpit.

Thanks to Stewart Nunn, JWC, Claudio Wilches, Col Gibbon, Moggy, Redeyes
and anyone else I forgot.

De Havilland DHA.98 Mosquito FB.40
TYPE: Two seat fighter-bomber 
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom 
ENGINES: 2x Rolls-Royce Merlin 33 engines, of 1,460 HP 
DIMENSIONS: 
SPAN: 54 ft 2 in / 16.51 m. 
LENGTH: 40 ft 10 in / 12.45 m. 
HEIGHT: 15 ft 3 in / 4.65 m. 
PERFORMANCE: 
MAX. SPEED: 330 kts / 611 kph 
LONG RANGE CRUISE: 221 kts / 410 kph 
OPERATIONAL CEILING: 33,000 ft / 10,058 m. 
INITIAL . CLIMB: 2,400 ft. / 731 m.per min 
NORMAL RANGE; 973 n.m. / 1,802 km. 
WEIGHTS: 
EMPTY WEIGHT: 14,344 lb / 6,506 kg 
MAX. LOADED: 22,258 lb / 10,096 kg 
ARMAMENT: 4x 20 mm cannon and 4x .303 in. machine guns in nose. Max. bomb
 load 2,000 lb / 907 kg. 8x 60 lb / 27 kg rockets under wings. 
CREW: 2 
RAAF SERVICE: 1943-53
with 1 and 94 Sqns., 5 OTU and 87 (PR) Sqn.
 
Apart from those Mosquitoes operated by Australian crews in Europe in World
War 2, 285 of the versatile aircraft were delivered to Australia or built 
locally for RAAF service. 456 Sqn. RAAF received its first Mosquito NF.IIs
in January 1943, operating in England. A second RAAF Mosquito squadron, no.
464, flew Mosquito FB.VIs from late 1943, and used them in the raid on the 
Amiens prison in January 1944, and on other precision targets.

Of the 212 Mosquito aircraft built in Australia, three crashed during
testing, and 209 were actually delivered. Most (178) were FB.40s. Six were
PR.40 photo reconnaissance aircraft, 17 were Mk.41 photo survey machines, 
and 11 were T.34 trainers. 22 of the FB.40s were converted equally to T.43 
or Mk.41 standard.

A further 76 aircraft of varying marks were also received from Britain. 

The Mosquito played a limited role in the Pacific war, only one of the two
combat squadrons (1 Sqn.) seeing action. 87 (Photo Recon) Sqn. made the most
use of its aircraft between 1944 and 1953. A six year project to remap
Australia using photo recon and photo survey Mosquito aircraft concluded in
August 1953, and with it the Mosquito ended its RAAF service. 


J.O'Neill

11 June, 2004