Comments on: What WW II plane would I have wanted to fly?

By: Dave Starr

Dave Starr — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:04:34 +0000

Thius Mosquito is indeed a fine choice. very interesting story behind that bird as you have well brought out. In England, although I have never heard it in the US, there is an old saying: “An engineer is a chap who can can build for a shilling what any fool can build for a quid.” The Mosquito certainly provides a little foundation for that sentiment.

There’s also a saying form (I believe) a US designr I always liked: “Simplicate and add lightness”. In my years maintaining various USAF aircraft I can state pretty categorically that few US designers subscribe to it.

Regarding my PBY choice, if I still lived in the US I doubt it would make it into my top ten, but when you live in a country comprised of 7107 island (maybe more if the Spratley contretemps is ever settled), the Cat just seems a lovely candiate. Never a shortage of runways 😉

By: Matthew Stibbe

Matthew Stibbe — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:53:02 +0000

Spitfire all the way for me. But the Mostquito would be good too. My step-father’s father flew them in the war.

By: Paul Tomblin

Paul Tomblin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:15:31 +0000

An old wives tale has it that the piano factories had a bit of trouble with quality control, because they’d never built anything that people’s lives depended on. So Geoffrey deHavilland instituted a policy that for every first test flight of an aircraft, they’d grab one production line worker at random to ride along. That got their attention.

I’ve also heard that a Mosquito could carry a bigger bomb load from England to Berlin than a B-17 could.