Operation Crossbow 2021

[Lace]

I may be breaking some forum rules here, but I think anyone on reading here would be interested in Operation Crossbow - A UK charity in the process of (re) building a flying Mosquito.  This will be the fourth flying Mosquito in the world and only example outside of North America.

 

Newsletter Signup - The People's Mosquito (peoplesmosquito.org.uk)

 

NB, I am in no way affiliated with the People's Mosquito charity.

 

 

[rkk01]

Yes, I saw this… 

Quite tempted to get involved.  Not having a UK flying Mossie is a huge gap in our aviation heritage

[Gunfreak]

There are generally so few flying examples of any British ww2 aircraft,  plenty of P51s from the yanks. But even the spitfire there are only a few airworthy examples. 

[Mogster]

24 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

There are generally so few flying examples of any British ww2 aircraft,  plenty of P51s from the yanks. But even the spitfire there are only a few airworthy examples. 

I suspect P51s are common as they were used long after WW2, same for F4Us, P38s and P47s are quite rare. Spitfire’s aren’t really in short supply. There are quite a few Mossies in preservation, even the prototype has survived incredibly, it’s just that making them airworthy is expensive. The real gaps in the UK WW2 warbird single seat roster are the Typhoon (only one) and Tempest V, Whirlwind also.
 

IIrc the UK in the 1940s (and Germany I think still) had laws about private individuals owning military hardware so they couldn’t be sold off like obsolete RAF aircraft are now. If they weren’t preserved by the government “RAF historic branch” they were scrapped. It’s tragic to see photos from Farnborough in the late 1940s with lots of really rare, particularly German, types lined up next to each other waiting to be scrapped. Tbh the US scrapped a lot of captured rare German and Japanese stuff also.

 

Worse there are very few German, Japanese, Russian WW2 originals in existence, even common types. 

 

 

[DD_Fenrir]

2 hours ago, Gunfreak said:

There are generally so few flying examples of any British ww2 aircraft,  plenty of P51s from the yanks. But even the spitfire there are only a few airworthy examples. 

You know it might be wise to fact check your opinions before posting… you might be surprised.

 

There’s about 60, by the way. 
 

However, regards to the other types, I agree. Typhoon, Beaufighter, Beaufort, Hampden… there are are lot of unrepresented less glamorous types that are sadly missing from the flying register.

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by DD_Fenrir

[Mogster]

An article with some Farnborough photos. It’s hard to identify all the types present. There’s definitely an He 177 at the back, Ta 152 also, Mb5.
 

https://falkeeinsgreatplanes.blogspot.com/2014/11/captured-enemy-aircraft-at-farnborough.html

 

More, post #38

 

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/captured-aircrafts-uk.32131/

Edited August 14, 2021 by Mogster

[Gunfreak]

5 hours ago, DD_Fenrir said:

You know it might be wise to fact check your opinions before posting… you might be surprised.

 

There’s about 60, by the way. 
 

However, regards to the other types, I agree. Typhoon, Beaufighter, Beaufort, Hampden… there are are lot of unrepresented less glamorous types that are sadly missing from the flying register.

 

 

35 airworthy spitifres in Britain,  60 total in the world, out of 20k originally. 

There are almost as many airworthy P51s as total spitifres still in existence,  airworthy or not.

So yes, a handful. 

[Krupi]

 

I mean 60 is a massive number of flying aircraft, sure the P-51 has over 170 but that is unique.

 

No other wwii fighter comes close to these two so not even close to a "handful"... Ridiculous. 

 

Fortunately this number has been going up over the years and there seems to be plenty of Merlins around for new developments. 

Edited August 14, 2021 by Krupi

[Mogster]

The US allowed private citizens to buy surplus aircraft after WW2 so pilots could buy an example of the plane they flew for $1500 and shove it in their barn if they wished. Some of these were sold on later and re-armed, P51s (and F4Us) were still equipping small airforces in Africa and S America through the 70s. The last dogfight and shoot down between piston fighters was in S America in the 70s I think. 

So it’s no surprise that there’s still plenty of P51s knocking about. I’m sure the Merlin being fairly common makes maintenance easier. Even if you could restore a Tempest V to airworthy you’ve got the added problem of the Napier Sabre to contend with which no one has even seen running for years unfortunately.