Advantage: speed.
When we hear of the Mosquito we almost always hear about wood construction and light weight - but it was the selection of balsa wood that was really brilliant. Balsa, one of the lightest of all woods can also be one of the strongest - when blocks are encapsulated in glue.
The design itself in wood that could be shaved light and covered with painted fabric was extremely “slippery” when it came to aerodynamics. Usually metal aircraft have imperfections (rivet heads, dimples, etc.) that simply cannot be covered without weight gain due to the workings of metal itself. With the Mosquito the only metal was used where metal absolutely had to be used: the engine mounts, landing gears & mounts, internal bomb bay parts - everything else was kept to a minimum of metal and kept light.
You can see how wafer thin the fuselage structure skin is ahead of the bulkhead:
so the aircraft isn’t going to “slug it out” like a B-25 or Beaufighter, but rather (well) zip in and zip out before anyone has the chance to do anything at all and this uncanny ability to show up unannounced certainly impressed Hermann Goering for one:
“It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy. The British, who can afford aluminum better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that? There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. After the war is over I’m going to buy a British radio set – then at least I’ll own something that has always worked.” - Hermann Goering
As Goering aptly pointed out: “every piano factory is building . . .” so it was innovative in cost effectiveness as well.
Combine light weight with 2 stage supercharged Merlin engines and you have speed at any altitude:
which gives the pilot the option to fight - or flee - and that is a rare option to have in WWII.
The Mosquito was probably best used for pinpoint strikes (the “surgical strike” aircraft of the day) but was also adept at photo recon, night-fighter, and other missions as well. Low level, the enemy never knew what hit them as most never saw the aircraft at all.
It carried a variety of armaments during the war but other aircraft were better suited for rocket attacks, etc., since the Mosquito was at its very best clean and fast.
When it was clean - its ability to escape even on one engine is legendary:
Safe flying to you!
Writer: Matt Mattson (Quora)
