01/31/2010. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Immortal Mosquito, designed by R.E. Bishop and his team, was the smallest two-seat bomber which could be built around two Merlin engines. Its main wing used was of stressed-skin wood construction, and the fuselage was a laminated wood en monocoque structure. It was unarmed, the radiators were buried in the wings, and with retractable landing gear was a clean and worthy design.

Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. took the prototype into the air for the first time on November 25, 1940 and, as expected, no contemporary fighter could catch it. A total of 7,781 served during the war, of which ten in a civil role.

In 1942-1943 one Mosquito Mk.IV and six Mosquito Mk.VI aircraft were converted at Hatfield and Bramcote respectively and handed over to BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) for service on the diplomatically important route between Leuchars in Scotland and neutral Sweden. Mail, with newspapers and magazines to counter enemy propaganda, were the chief loads, while urgently required ball bearings were brought back in the bomb-bays.

This service, hitherto flown at night with Lodestars, was operated in daylight high above the concentrated German anti-aircraft defenses in the Skaggerak, a sea strait running between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. After Captain Gilbert Rae was shot up by a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 on his way back from Stockholm and forced to make a belly-landing in Sweden, the route was flown only at night. On several occasions, important passengers were carried, locked in the bomb-bay with a supply of refreshments, reading material and oxygen.

The service continued until the end of the European war, three additional Mosquito's, converted for civil use at Croydon, being added to the fleet in 1944 to replace losses. Most of these were due to crashes in disabled aircraft or to accidents in bad visibility in the vicinity of Leuchars, with the exception of one aircraft, posted missing after leaving Gothenberg on August 29, 1944.

The sole Mosquito Mk.IV operated by BOAC was build at Hatfield with the s/n DZ411 under contract 555/C.23(a). It was converted for civil use in late 1942, and the first to be delivered to BOAC, registered as G-AGFV on December 23, 1942. It was deregistered on January 26, 1945, as it had been returned to the RAF on the previous January 6."