Pilot James K.. Gibbs had his hands full in the cockpit of the stricken de Havilland Mosquito as he struggled to control the aeroplane's bucking yoke. The starboard undercarriage leg was hanging in the slipstream, and the starboard Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was throwing out gouts of smoke and flame. Despite his best efforts Gibbs could not keep the aircraft from losing altitude; there was nothing for it - he reached up to jettison the canopy hatch. This story begins on June 18, 1948, when Airspeed-built de Havilland Mosquito B.35 VR801 was flown into Wroughton, Wiltshire, for storage at the RAF's No 15 Maintenance Unit (MU).
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