The de Havilland Mosquito FB.26 KA114 under restoration by Avspecs Ltd made its first engine run today. The company, based in Auckland, New Zealand, is restoring the aircraft to airworthiness for its owner, Jerry Yagen. The restoration of the Mosquito being a lengthy process, the first flight of KA114 has been postponed several times but should take place soon. The first flight should take place 29th of September, although such a date could be postponed for various reasons.
The Mosquito is a rare warbird as its wooden construction does not age well. The last flight of a Mosquito took place on 21 July 1996, when T.3 RR299 crashed, killing its crew of two.
5 comments
Skip to comment form
She has since taxied, wed 26th looking good for the maiden
Having lived near Hawarden airfield all my life I grew up luckily watching rr299 on a reguler basis.As we all know she sadly crashed in 1996 with the tragic loss of 2 lives. Hope all goes well with the restoration to flight,hopefully another generation will hear the beautiful sound of a Mosquito taking to the air.
RR299 did not kill its crew. It’s crew killed RR299 (and themselves in the process) because they forgot the characteristics of its Rolls Royce engines. The English language can be very precise — please be careful how you use it.
Author
It’s crew? 😉
My point was mostly that RR299’s crash killed the crew. I don’t know exactly what caused the crash, but from your comment I take it that it was pilot error.
This Mosquito flew today, I was able to see it land and taxi to the apron in front of the main Hangar at our maintenance base. Later it took off again for a short flight. Video should be on you tube soon.