The de Havilland Mosquito rebuilt from scratch in New Zealand and the dream to fly the Wooden Wonder again

The de Havilland Mosquito, the fastest piston-engine combat aircraft of World War II, is being rebuilt from scratch by craftsmen in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Led by Warren Denholm’s Avspecs shop in Auckland and the nonprofit People’s Mosquito project in Britain, these efforts use original blueprints, traditional woodworking techniques, and the same species of timber to return the Wooden Wonder to the skies.

Why Was the Mosquito Built from Wood?

In 1938, Geoffrey de Havilland proposed a bomber built entirely from wood — birch plywood, spruce longerons, and balsa-core sandwich construction. The British Air Ministry rejected the idea twice, calling it a throwback. De Havilland built it anyway.

The DH.98 Mosquito that emerged from Salisbury Hall in 1940 shattered every expectation. Powered by twin Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, it exceeded 400 mph, making it faster than the Spitfire. It carried 4,000 pounds of bombs to Berlin in its bomber configuration. As a fighter, it mounted four 20mm cannons and four machine guns. The bomber version carried no defensive armament because nothing could catch it.

Hermann Goering reportedly said he was “consumed with envy” that the British chose to build a beautiful aircraft from wood while German engineers struggled to meet metal demand.

What Did the Mosquito Do During the War?

Nearly 8,000 Mosquitos were built, serving in every theater of operations. Their missions read like a catalog of the impossible:

Precision low-level raids on Gestapo headquarters in occupied Europe
Pathfinder missions marking targets for heavy bomber streams
Anti-shipping strikes at wave-top height over the North Sea
Photo reconnaissance at speeds and altitudes German interceptors couldn’t match

The aircraft served as bomber, fighter, night fighter, photo reconnaissance platform, and coastal strike aircraft — all with a crew of just two.

Why Are So Few Mosquitos Left?

The same organic material that made the Mosquito cheap and fast to build became its curse in peacetime. Moisture, rot, and tropical climates destroyed wooden airframes in storage. Mosquitos were scrapped by the hundreds. By the 1960s, only a handful of static survivors remained in museums and a few wrecks rotted in fields. The fastest piston combat aircraft of the war was essentially extinct as a flying machine.

Who Is Rebuilding the Mosquito?

Avspecs, based in Auckland, New Zealand, has taken on the challenge under founder Warren Denholm. The company had years of warbird restoration experience — Merlin engine overhauls, Spitfire rebuilds — but Denholm’s particular obsession was the Mosquito. His goal: a real, flying-condition aircraft built as close to original specification as possible.

This is fundamentally different from restoring an aluminum warbird. A metal aircraft can be pulled from a wreck, stripped to its bones, and rebuilt. The Mosquito’s primary structure is wood — birch plywood, Ecuadorian balsa, and Sitka spruce — materials that do not survive decades of neglect. You cannot restore a Mosquito. You have to build it again from scratch.

How Do You Build a Mosquito from Original Plans?

The Mosquito fuselage is constructed in two halves, like a clamshell. Each half is a sandwich of birch plywood outer skin, balsa core, and birch plywood inner skin, formed over a massive concrete jig. The halves are joined along the centerline. The wing is a one-piece wooden structure passing through the fuselage. Control surfaces are fabric over wood.

Avspecs sourced original fuselage molds, preserved de Havilland engineering drawings — some still bearing penciled margin notes from 1942 factory workers — and birch plywood from the same regions that supplied wartime production. Craftsmen learned period techniques: hand-shaping spruce spars with spokeshaves and block planes, laminating plywood skins one layer at a time over curved forms with precisely heated glue.

Every rivet pattern on metal components follows the original drawings. Every wire bundle inside the fuselage is routed as de Havilland specified. The engine nacelles, built in aluminum, must be fitted to wooden wings with precision that accounts for wood’s movement with humidity and temperature.

When Did the First Rebuilt Mosquito Fly?

The first Avspecs Mosquito, registered N208CO and based on an original FB.26 airframe manufactured by de Havilland Canada, flew on September 27, 2012, at Ardmore Airport near Auckland. The aircraft’s twin Merlin 25 engines fired to life with the unmistakable syncopated rumble of slightly out-of-sync Merlins, and the Mosquito took to the air for the first time in decades.

On July 26, 2014, that aircraft crashed during a display at Ardmore. Both crew members were killed. The investigation identified a control issue. The loss was devastating — a stark reminder that these are original combat aircraft designs, and flying them carries inherent risk.

Denholm did not shut down. He grieved, studied the findings, made adjustments, and continued building. Multiple Mosquito projects were already underway in the Avspecs shop for clients worldwide.

Who Commissioned New Mosquito Rebuilds?

One of the most significant projects was a Mosquito FB.26 built for Jerry Yagen’s Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Yagen, whose collection ranks among the finest assemblies of flying warbirds in the world, wanted a Mosquito that could fly — not a static display piece.

In the United Kingdom, the People’s Mosquito project is a nonprofit working to return a flying Mosquito to British skies. Their restoration centers on a Mosquito B.35, serial number TA719. If completed, it would be the only airworthy Mosquito based in the country that invented it. Britain built nearly 8,000 Mosquitos during the war and currently has none that can fly on home soil. The project has drawn widespread donations from aviation enthusiasts across the UK.

What Makes the Mosquito’s Merlin Engines Special?

The Rolls-Royce Merlin is arguably the most famous piston aircraft engine ever built: 12 cylinders in a V configuration, supercharged, running on 130-octane fuel during wartime service. It is also the one warbird powerplant with enough surviving examples that overhaul and operation remain feasible.

In the Mosquito, two Merlins sit just feet from the crew in a cockpit barely wider than a phone booth. Each engine produces roughly 1,200 horsepower, conducted through laminated birch plywood. Wartime pilots said you didn’t just hear the Mosquito — you wore it.

Why Does Rebuilding a Wooden Aircraft Demand Different Skills?

Aluminum is forgiving. It can be patched, riveted, welded, and spliced. Wood is not. Wood demands that builders start over entirely, working as craftsmen rather than mechanics. The people rebuilding Mosquitos are as much furniture makers and boatbuilders as they are aircraft technicians, shaping organic material — recently a living tree — into a machine that flies faster than most modern general aviation aircraft.

The Mosquito was the last great wooden combat aircraft, the final proof that natural materials in the hands of brilliant designers could match the best metal engineering in the world. Every rebuilt Mosquito keeps that proof alive.

Key Takeaways

The de Havilland Mosquito was a wood-built WWII aircraft that outperformed metal contemporaries, exceeding 400 mph with twin Merlin engines
Avspecs in New Zealand pioneered the ground-up rebuild, flying the first restored Mosquito in 2012 — the first to fly in decades
Wood cannot be restored like metal — every rebuilt Mosquito requires entirely new timber construction using original blueprints and period techniques
The People’s Mosquito project aims to base the only flying example in Britain, where nearly 8,000 were originally built
The 2014 crash at Ardmore killed both crew members but did not end the rebuilding effort; multiple projects continue worldwide