Shortfinals – aviation and more!

By: shortfinals

Apr 19 2019

Tags: 'Mossie Bites', 'Peoples Mosquito', 'The Buzz', aircraft, Al Dahna, Aviation, aviation heritage, CAD files, Civil Aviation Authority, club journal, container, container ship, craftsmen, De Havilland, DH.98, donation, engineering, FB VI, fighter-bomber, fixtures, Great Britain, jigs, members' club, mosquito, Napier, New Zealand, newsletter, Registered Charity, restoration project, Retrotec Ltd, road haulage, Royal Air Force, Royal Air Force Air Cadets, sea freight, SJG Haulauge, Southampton, United Kingdom, wooden construction, WW2

Category: Uncategorized

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Bringing an iconic aircraft type back to life is never easy. As the years go by, it gets harder and harder. Memories of skilled craftsmen fade, spare parts become harder to find and it takes a dedicated, highly skilled restoration company, such as Retrotec Ltd to provide the technical expertise required.

A few months ago, The People’s Mosquito (a Registered Charity, No 1165903) were given the chance to bid on a highly-prized set of CAD files for the major components of a de Havilland Mosquito. Not only that, but the CAD files came as part of a package of around 6 tonnes of jigs and fixtures, for the wing, tank doors, flaps, fin, rudder, tailplanes, elevators and bomb bay doors. These jigs had been used to build the aforementioned components for the latest flyable Mosquito FB.VI, PZ474.

Fitted carefully into a container, the components started their 13,000+ mile sea voyage from Napier, New Zealand to the UK port of Southampton. Eventually, the container was off-loaded from the giant 200,000 ton container ship, the ‘Al Dahna’, which had had to wait until high tide before proceeding up Southampton Water, and processed through Customs. A local company, SJG Haulage of Southampton, did a grand job of conveying our container to Retrotec’s works, where the Mosquito project will be based.