Something of a “Holy Grail” question here.
Uwe Benkel’s aircraft recovery group in Germany have unearthed the remnants of a Mosquito, including a data plate from what appears to be a Mossie with construction number 1718. Image is here:
Can anyone tie this construction number to a serial? (Flutters eyes in Bruce’s direction…)
The original thread is here:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aircraft-requests/ww-ii-aircraft-recoveries-10639.html
So far as I can see, the data plate indicates bits from the tailwheel assembly – can anyone confirm?
Cheers,
Mark
By: mhuxt - 17th December 2007 at 04:29
Just to let you guys know, I passed the information on to Uwe Benkel via the original thread, and asked for location, but pretty much as predicted, there’s been no reply.
Will post again if anything is forthcoming.
By: mhuxt - 11th December 2007 at 20:31
No worries Bruce 🙂
By: Bruce - 10th December 2007 at 21:57
Mark,
David beat me to it on this one – sorry I havent replied sooner!
Bruce
By: mhuxt - 10th December 2007 at 21:24
Hi David:
Many thanks for that!
I’ll pass your info along to Uwe over at the original thread.
I’ll also ask him for location – sometimes this isn’t forthcoming, possibly due to “souvenir-hunter avoidance”, also possibly due to “over-zealous-local-officialdom avoidance”; can’t say for sure.
Thanks once again,
Mark
By: TempestV - 10th December 2007 at 08:31
Chatting to a collegue from Salisbury hall at the weekend can I can add a few more details to this mosquito part.
Niether of serial numbers shown are the the aircraft construction number unfortunately, however they do identify it as being from a mosquito elevator.
J981018 is a drawing number and identifies an elevator assembly.
1718 is not the a/c construction number.
The “GPB” reference is likely to be the sub-contractors initials, and is one we have’nt seen before.
The exact location of the find would establish a better chance of getting the true identity.
By: mhuxt - 7th December 2007 at 12:28
Hi David:
Thanks for the info. I don’t have any indication of where the aircraft was found, though there’s a post on another board about some (possible) Mossie wreckage having been found near Donauwoerth. I reckon that one may have been NS521, but that’s just a guess, and whether it’s the one Uwe Benkel is asking about, I also don’t know.
Construction number info for Mossies seems to be exceptionally rare.
By: TempestV - 7th December 2007 at 11:45
If either of these numbers is the actual construction number, then looking at the production serials:
98″0750″ could be an FB.6 in the HJxxx serial range
and
98″1718″ could also be an FB.6 in the HRxxx serial range.
Are there any details about where this aircraft was found?
By: TempestV - 7th December 2007 at 10:43
… a rare find! I have been lucky enough to sit in several of the surviving UK mosquitos and have not seen any of the serial plates before.
The construction number for this aircraft could either be 981018 or 1718, which puts it somewhere between the following two known serials acording to the website noted.
HJ723=98750 (to G-AGGH)
RG233=982827
The following website is a very good reference for de Havilland production references:
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December 7, 2007 at 9:51 am