I dont the skill to make them would be an issue considering that aircraft right up until 1939 were nearly all made of wood. The Spitfire was a very difficult aircraft to build and they managed to turn out 20K plus of those. I am sure had the Mosquito been BC aircraft of choise they would have soon geared up to making them.

I think the policy at the time was to drop the biggest tonnage and cause the most destruction,and the Lancaster was the master of the heavy bomb load. I think the US would have well advised to scrap all their B17s and switch to Mosquitoes though it carried just as large a bomb load as a B17.

Although the Mossie was made of wood, it wasn’t exactly your standard wooden aircraft. There’s always the suggestion that the Mossie was made of wood and so would have been easy to build, but the truth is that it was a complex beastie that used all sorts of cutting edge moulding and bonding techniques. Chuck in the reliance on imported wood for its construction and you can understand why the AirMin didn’t stick all thier eggs in the Mosquito basket. It would be interesting to know exactly how many man-hours went into a Mossie as compared to something like a Beaufighter or Boston- I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mossie turned out to be the more labour intensive.

As for the weight of bombs equalling the B17 etc, whilst that’s technically true, the Mossie couldn’t carry the same number of bombs. The destruction of certain targets, such as marshalling yards and other complexes, required a large spread of a large number of bombs. So heavies like the Fort had thier merits.

Just my two-pence worth…

As I understand it, and I could be wrong, free entry at Hendon is possible because the MoD puts a wad of money the RAFM’s way. This was done in order to bring it in line with many of the other national museums in London (Science Museum, National Gallery etc) who have free entry thanks to grants from the government. So, if the MoD are reviewing costs at the RAFM, then free admission is likely to be the first thing to go surely?

Reading some of the hugely enthusiastic posts in this thread, I began to wonder if I’d been watching the same programme! I thought it was about average, and I’m sorry to say it did nothing for me emotionally. I’m not talking here about the technicalities mentioned above such as continuity and wrong camouflage schemes etc, I knew already that it was done on a tight budget and so I was prepared for that kind of thing.

What bothered me the most was how the film seemed to fail to capture the spirit of things, it felt a bit like Eastenders in uniform at times. Now I know I wasn’t there in 1940, and so can’t say first hand what it was like, but it just seemed to lack that element of camaraderie and youthful exuberance that comes through in Wellum’s book, and indeed in many other’s accounts of the Battle. The squadron atmosphere just wasn’t there.

There were also one or two inaccuracies that I thought did Wellum a bit of a disservice, most notably in the final convoy patrol scene. In truth, Wellum never lost his leader despite the R/T problems he was having and the poor visibility, and only broke formation when he sighted the enemy aircraft. Part of the story should have been his bravery in deciding to break from his leader to attack, thus knowingly exposing himself to the dire position of being without R/T in blind conditions. His feat of navigation and airmanship in finding his own way home is one of the most amazing passages in the entire book, and yet it wasn’t touched upon. In many ways the ‘Convoy Pair’ chapter in the book represents what Wellum was all about- an extremely brave, intelligent and talented pilot. The film suggests he lost his leader, attacked when he shouldn’t have done, and then he magically materialises back at base. Oh well!

It was very brave of the production team to take this project on, and they did pretty well with what they had, but it was never really going to be enough to do the book justice and I think that so long as you’ve read the book you won’t miss anything by not seeing this dramatisation- with the exception of some extra insights from Geoff himself, and the nice in-cockpit sequences shot in the Yak-52.

Sorry! I wanted to like it and enjoy it more, but it just felt a bit wrong and/or shallow in too many places.

Thanks for the insight Stephen, amazing work and even more labour-intensive than I’d imagined. This will sound like a crazy question given that it’s a flying model, but do you think it will actually be flown when it reaches the new owner? Considering the craftsmanship and the cost I’d personally be very nervous about flying it! If I were the owner I can well imagine myself being happy just looking at it. 🙂

Did you get a chance to test fly it before dispatch?

A sad end to an inspirational operation, such a shame they can’t go on. Here’s hoping the airworthy aircraft all find good homes, and that all the Thunder City folk have as little strife as possible finding new employment.

As well as the airworthy aircraft, there’s also the pole-mounted Gloster Javelin to consider, one of only two surviving Mk.1’s.