Mosquito RR299

BBMF helped out

I remember touring through the BBMF hangar in 1996 and the tour guide telling us the engines in bits near the door were from the mosquito that crashed.

Gosh, that made for sad reading. Had no idea the BBMF helped out afterwards- good on them. 🙁

why did they have to pull it up like that?
JH

John,

Because that is what is needed to enter a wingover!

As you can see from the clip, after the (gentle) climb, it banked right to start the wingover, but sadly the left engine lost power at this critical moment (low airspeed and high thrust from the other engine), which caused the loss of control and subsequent spin.

As you say, they recovered from the spin, but sadly had insufficient height to complete it.

I suggest anyone who has not read the AAIB report does so.

Cheers

Paul

Ah jeez…with You Tube all is available to see. What a bloody waste and I feel sick having just watched that, (and I searched on my own before I saw the other post about the clip) why did they have to pull it up like that? I’d never seen the crash before, of course I heard of it the day after. They almost made it and were recovering, too late. I’m often reminded of this lovely aeroplane and it’s very sad none are flying. I just was looking at a Mosquito at a museum recently and of course I was thinking of the last flyer. A real shame.

JH

I think that because of it’s uniqueness, power and grace, the Mosquito was most people’s favourite performer at airshows, it certainly was mine.
I can’t remember exactly the circumstances in which I learnt of the accident, I’d heard that a WW2 a/c had crashed at an airshow, but had no knowledge of what it was, or the fate of the aircrew.
I recall seeing the footage on the news and seeing the unmistakeable shape of the Mossie go in, I realised then what it was and that the crew could not have survived, it hurt more than any other accident that I have witnessed on the telly, ( the Firefly was the worst as I was only a few hundred yards away from where it happened ).
I was at FL on the saturday when RR299 was together with the P-38 for what I didn’t realise was to be the last time, making my video footage very poignant indeed.
I didn’t realise that RR299 was about to be donated to the the BBMF, I knew that they wanted to get their hands on a Mossie, but always assumed at the time, that they had something stashed away somewhere that was in reasonable condition.
Somewhere I have some video footage of it flying with the DH88 Comet, but I thought that I filmed this at Mildenhall rather than OW.

I saw her at Cossie,must have been ’94 or ’95 and Steve came in for his first pass down the display line in customary style,”clipping the grass”.
As usual he gave a superb display.

Strangely enough,cousin Spadegrip and I were only discussing RR299 at last year’s Lincs Lanc bash.He said that the BBMF should have got their hands on her at the end of the ’96 season.
Incidentally,a big cheer for Clive and Shiney at last year’s bash.Their last displays on the Spit and Hurri were 100% superb.

Mark:D

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but after searching for footage of RR299 on youtube.com I discovered a clip showing its demise at Barton.
My apologies if it has already been highlighted.
RIP both crew 🙁

I won’t publicise the URL, I’ll leave it for you to search for should you wish to watch it.

A work colleague of mine has just uploaded this shot of Mosquito N35MK to the Air Britain picture site.

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1019941/

You can perform a detailed inspection of Kermit’s Mossie, and many of the other planes in the EAA Museum at Oshkosh, using the Museum’s controllable webcam.

http://www.airventuremuseum.org/webcam/

At Oshkosh in 2003, I question its airworthiness now!

When talking to ne of the engineers at Fantasy Of Flight a couple of years back i was led to belive that it was no longer airworthy due to some delamination in the wing, this being caused by the climate that it had been stored in, ie it had got to hot and dry and the moisture content allowed to get to low!!

RS712…..
prepared for ferry flight at Booker and Benson IIRC
Colin

Thanks for the replies everyone. The reason I asked was that I saw her at Booker just before she went and never bothered to note the Serial No. as I wasn’t the aircraft anorak that I am now. I have a couple of photos of her somewhere at home and wanted to dig them out and catalogue the Serial No. That’s the last I heard too, that she’s no longer airworthy.

What’s the little green jet?

Hi Fouga 23,

It is what started as the de Havilland 125 business jet in 1960. This was one of the latest special versions, the U-125A Search and Rescue aircraft for the Japan Air Self Defence Force and is in green primer before painting and delivery.It is now called a Hawker of Raytheon corporate jets, who now own the rights to its manufacture.

It was an interesting combination in the air!

Phil

RS712

At Oshkosh in 2003, I question its airworthiness now!

..and sadly, this was the last time, one week before its terrible end, taken at Hawarden July, 1996

Phil

What’s the little green jet?

RS712…..
prepared for ferry flight at Booker and Benson IIRC
Colin

That little debate sparked a question in my mind. What was the serial of the one that went to Kermit Weeks? Anyone know?

RS712/G-ASKB/N34MK believed currently unairworthy.

That little debate sparked a question in my mind. What was the serial of the one that went to Kermit Weeks? Anyone know?

I have just found a big postcard of RR299 and RS712 air to air in my collection.
Its now on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=013&item=230038982267&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

I was up here at the time, the flying co ordinator was a local aviator Tim Griffiths. In his own collection of pics there is a superb series of air to airs of the Mosquito over Inverness and the Kessock bridge. A pity that I do not have copies. The actual sequence in the film is very short ,basically the Mosquito beats up a field where Italian prisoners of war are working.

It is also possible that RR299 took part in an air display while it was at Inverness.

Found it Pete, the movie is called “Another Time another place” 1983.

I’ve seen it, a long time ago, but I don’t recall a Mosquito in it – and I think I’d remember. Fits the discription otherwise though.

Found it Pete, the movie is called “Another Time another place” 1983.