AERO

Sometimes when you see an aircraft you just know that its ‘right’, and usually, after you have seen it fly, you are certain of that. The de Havilland Mosquito was one of those aircraft – elegant, swift and deadly. It had been one of the solid pillars of Bomber Command during WW2, and thanks to a programme of continuous technical development, was still effective in 1945. The last, high speed, pressurized, high-altitude version of the Mosquito, the B.35, was just too late for wartime RAF service from U.K. bases, although two squadrons, No. 109 and 139 at RAF Hemswell, operated them until 1952. It was obvious that the future lay with jet aircraft, and the Luftwaffe had shown the way, using both the Me262 as a fighter-bomber and the Arado 234 as a bomber in the later stages of WW2.

The Air Ministry issued Specification B.3/45 for a two-seat jet…