THE MIRACULOUS MOSQUITO

摘要

Of the hundreds of types of aircraft that flew in World War Ⅱ, every warbirder could come up with a list of the dozen most iconic. Spitfire, P-51, Zero, Stuka, Me-109, PBY, B-17, Corsair, Lancaster, B-29, Fw-190, Me-262...the candidates are nearly endless, and most lists would differ. But it's a fair bet that many would include the Timber Terror, the Loping Lumberyard, the Wooden Wonder: the de Havilland Mosquito. It could be argued that no airplane amassed as remarkable a combat record in so short a time as did the Mosquito. It entered the war relatively late, a year to the day after the Battle of Britain ended, but it debuted with technology and aerodynamics far more advanced than the Spitfire's. Certainly no airplane flew as many different kinds of missions and performed them as well as the Mosquito, one of the world's first successful multirole combat aircraft. The Tornado strives to be its successor; the F-35 should be so lucky.