de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito

Updated: October 2026 – Two Merlin engines whose sound every warbird fan recognizes instantly, a strikingly slim fuselage and a canopy under which two men sit shoulder to shoulder: that is the de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito. It was a bomber without defensive armament, built almost entirely of wood, and yet one of the most versatile aircraft types of World War II. Here you’ll learn how the Mosquito came about, which versions there were, how to recognize it and where you can still see one of the few surviving aircraft today.

What is the de Havilland Mosquito?

The DH.98 Mosquito is a twin-engine combat aircraft with a crew of two, developed and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company of Hatfield, north of London. Pilot and navigator sit side by side in a cramped cockpit far forward in the fuselage. It is powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlins, the same V12 engine found in the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster.

What makes it special is the construction: the Mosquito is made predominantly of wood. The fuselage is a shell of two layers of plywood with a balsa core, made in two longitudinal halves that were then glued together. The wing is wooden too, with the surface covered in fabric and painted. Hence the nickname “Wooden Wonder”; in everyday use, crews mostly called it simply “Mossie.”

The idea behind it was radical: instead of making a bomber heavy and slow with gun turrets and gunners, de Havilland bet on speed. The unarmed bomber versions were simply meant to outrun German fighters. The late bomber version B Mk.XVI reached around 668 km/h – an enormous figure for a bomber of that era.

Origins: a project against resistance

In the 1930s, de Havilland had gained experience with fast wooden aircraft, such as racing aircraft and airliners like the DH.89 Dragon Rapide. Out of this tradition came the idea of a fast, unarmed wooden bomber. At the Air Ministry, the concept initially met with skepticism – a bomber without defensive armament, and made of wood at that, did not fit the ideas of the time.

According to the RAF Museum, the actual design work began in December 1939. The team withdrew to Salisbury Hall near London Colney, a country estate a few kilometers from Hatfield. There, in a hangar next to the manor house, the prototype with the serial W4050 was also built. It was taken to Hatfield in pieces and lifted off for its first flight on November 25, 1940, with Geoffrey de Havilland Jr., son of the company’s founder, at the controls.

Less than eleven months thus passed from project start to first flight. Already in the first trials, the aircraft showed that it was faster than many fighters of the time – and with that, the skepticism quickly evaporated.

Built in three countries

Because wood and woodworking firms were available, the Mosquito could be manufactured widely dispersed. Besides the main plant at Hatfield, a plant at Leavesden, the Standard Motor Company, Percival, Airspeed and a plant at Hawarden, among others, built the aircraft in Great Britain. Suppliers from the furniture industry made wooden components.

Outside Great Britain, Mosquitos were built at de Havilland Canada in Downsview near Toronto – a good thousand, depending on the source – as well as at de Havilland Australia, which delivered 212 aircraft. The Canadian Mosquitos partly received US-built Packard Merlin engines. In total, a figure of 7,781 Mosquitos is most often cited; the individual figures from the plants add up to slightly differing totals depending on the source.

The Canadian de Havilland subsidiary, incidentally, is the same company that later celebrated successes of its own with the Beaver, Twin Otter and Dash 8 – more on that on the page about De Havilland Canada.

One basic design, many roles: the most important versions

Hardly any aircraft of World War II was used so versatilely. Dozens of variants arose from the same wooden fuselage. The abbreviation before the mark number tells you the role.

Abbreviation	Role	Typical features
PR	Photo reconnaissance	Unarmed, cameras in the fuselage, often painted light blue or silver-gray
B	Bomber	Glazed nose for the bombardier, no armament
FB	Fighter-bomber	Closed nose with four machine guns, four 20 mm cannon below
NF	Night fighter	Radar in the nose, often with a round “thimble” fairing
T	Trainer	Dual controls for training
TT	Target tug	Postwar conversion, towed targets for anti-aircraft practice

The most-built version was the FB Mk.VI fighter-bomber. It carried four .303 machine guns and four 20 mm cannon in the nose and could also carry bombs or rockets. A special form was the FB Mk.XVIII, nicknamed “Tsetse,” with a modified 57 mm anti-tank gun against ships and submarines.

Among the bombers, the B Mk.IV was introduced in November 1941 with No. 105 Squadron. The later B Mk.XVI got a pressurized cabin and Merlin engines with a two-stage supercharger for greater altitudes. Variants with an enlarged bomb bay could carry a single 4,000-lb bomb. For naval aviators, there was a version with folding wings for carrier operations.

Missions that made history

The Mosquito took part in many well-known operations. Some of them made it famous even during the war.

Oslo, September 1942: On September 25, 1942, Mosquitos attacked a building used by the Gestapo in Oslo. Shortly afterward, on September 26, the British Air Ministry presented the type to the public officially for the first time; newspapers soon showed photos of the aftermath of the attack.

Berlin, January 1943: On January 30, 1943, Mosquitos attacked Berlin in broad daylight. The attack coincided with a speech by Hermann Göring and disrupted the radio broadcast – a propaganda coup for the RAF.

Amiens, February 1944: In Operation Jericho, Mosquitos attacked the prison at Amiens to breach the walls and allow prisoners from the French Resistance to escape.

In addition, from mid-1943 Mosquitos flew fast night raids on German cities in the Light Night Striking Force and, as pathfinders, marked targets for the heavy Lancaster bombers. Photo-reconnaissance aircraft delivered pictures from high altitude, night fighters hunted German night fighters, and the Coastal Command strike wings attacked ships with rockets.

There was a civil chapter as well: the British state airline BOAC used a few Mosquitos as fast transport aircraft between Great Britain and neutral Sweden. They carried small, valuable cargo and the occasional passenger across occupied territory.

After the war

After 1945, the Mosquito stayed in service for a few more years. The RAF used it as a fighter until 1952, then in secondary roles such as target tug. Numerous other air forces took over retired aircraft, including Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Israel and Belgium. Belgium flew NF.30 night fighters from 1947 to 1956 – one of them now stands in the Royal Army Museum in Brussels.

In Canada, the company Spartan Air Services used former RAF Mosquitos for high-altitude survey flights. Some aircraft from North America also went to the Chinese Nationalists in the late 1940s.

At de Havilland itself, the Mosquito was the basis for the faster fighter DH.103 Hornet. At the same time, the jet age was already beginning at Hatfield: with the DH.100/DH.115 Vampire, the manufacturer built one of the first British jet fighters, and the DH.106 Comet followed in 1949 as the world’s first jet airliner.

How to recognize the Mosquito

At warbird meets or in a museum, several twin-engine warplanes often stand side by side. With these three steps, you narrow down the Mosquito.

Another often-overlooked detail is the cooling air intakes in the wing leading edge between fuselage and engine. On many other types with inline engines, the radiators sit under the engines or under the fuselage. The nose then tells you the version: glazed on the bomber, closed with gun muzzles on the fighter-bomber, a round cowl on the night fighter.

The B-25 Mitchell is seen at air shows far more often than the Mosquito and is sometimes confused with it, especially from a distance. By the twin vertical stabilizers at the latest, though, it’s clear. The Messerschmitt Me 262 stands within sight of a Mosquito in some museums and nicely shows how quickly the technology changed in just a few years.

Where to see the Mosquito today

Of the around 7,780 aircraft built, according to available information only about 30 survive, most of them as museum exhibits. As of this count, about five examples are airworthy: three in the USA, one in Canada and one in New Zealand. Several more are under restoration, so the number can change.

London Colney (England): The de Havilland Aircraft Museum is on the grounds of Salisbury Hall, where the Mosquito was designed. The yellow prototype W4050 stands there, plus two more Mosquitos. For Mosquito fans, it is the most important place of all.

Hendon and Cosford (England): The RAF Museum in London-Hendon shows a Mosquito alongside other World War II bombers. At the RAF Museum Cosford stands the former target tug TA639; you’ll find tips for your visit at the spot at Cosford.

Duxford (England): A Mosquito is on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. Duxford is also worthwhile for its flying days, when many other warbirds fly – more in the article on the Duxford airshows and at the spot at Duxford.

Brussels and Bodø: In the Royal Army Museum Brussels stands a night fighter of the Belgian Air Force, and in the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum in Bodø a T.III version trainer – fitting, since Norway was frequently the target of Mosquito missions during the war.

North America: The Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa shows a Canadian-built Mosquito, and the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton an Airspeed-built B.35 displayed in the colors of a PR.XVI photo-reconnaissance aircraft. Flying examples are, according to available information, based in Virginia Beach, in Everett in the US state of Washington, in California, in Kelowna, Canada, and in New Zealand.

Location	Chance of a Mosquito	Why
London Colney (England)	certain (static)	Prototype W4050 and two more Mosquitos
Hendon and Cosford (England)	certain (static)	One example each in the RAF museums
Duxford (England)	certain (static)	Mosquito on display, plus many flying warbirds
Ottawa and Dayton	certain (static)	Museum examples in North America
Air shows in North America	low to medium	Few airworthy examples, appearances depend on the season
Air shows in Europe	very low	No known airworthy Mosquito based in Europe

Photo tips for the Mosquito

Whether in a museum or at an air show: the Mosquito is an elegant subject but takes a bit of planning.

For flying days, the article Photographing air shows helps, and an overview of worthwhile dates is provided by Air shows in Europe for plane spotters. How to identify other vintage aircraft reliably is shown in How to recognize vintage aircraft. And because a flying Mosquito in Europe would be a real rarity, the article How rare is my sighting? is also worth a read.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Mosquito stands for a bold idea: a bomber without defensive armament, built of wood and protected only by speed. From the prototype that took off at Hatfield in 1940 came around 7,780 aircraft in Great Britain, Canada and Australia, flying as bombers, fighter-bombers, night fighters, reconnaissance aircraft and target tugs. Today it is a rare sight: a few examples still fly, all outside Europe, and the rest stand in museums. For spotters in Europe, the path therefore usually leads to London Colney, Hendon, Cosford or Duxford – and anyone who is lucky may one day experience in North America the sound of two Merlins over a Mosquito silhouette.