de Havilland Mosquito NF.II
HJ711 VI-C
"Spirit of Val"
Situated In the main hangar alongside Just Jane is another British aviation icon, in the form of Tony Agar’s outstanding de Havilland Mosquito NF Mk.II restoration. The project arrived at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre during the summer of 2017, having moved from a museum in Yorkshire. After a lengthy spell re-installing items that needed to be removed prior to transportation, Tony’s attention turned to the Mosquito’s two Merlin 25 engines. The Centre’s engineering staff also provided considerable time and attention to these engines and after stripping both engines down for examination, only minor rectification work was required on one of them.
1942 saw the first of 466 NF Mk.Is delivered to the Royal Air Force, the start of long line of radar equipped Mosquitos that would continue, as different marques, to see service long after hostilities had ended. Tony’s HJ711 is a fascinating lifelong restoration and it also unique as the only active Mosquito outside of a very small number of airworthy examples in Canada and the USA. Tony’s HJ711 will never fly - lets be very clear about that - There is much history within HJ711 and a restoration to flight would require a whole new airframe, thus losing all the history and sections of different Mosquitos that have gone into creating HJ711. This is Tony’s life work, now reaching fifty years, and the project has been restored to the highest possible standards, but only ever with the vision to perform engine runs. This rare aircraft has been restored without any financial backing and its difficult to comprehend the amazing lengths to which Tony has gone to over the years to find and obtain so many essential elements. Scrap yards, crash sites, disused airfields, industrial warehouses and with the generosity of many aviation enthusiasts and friends, parts have been obtained from Canada, America, New Zealand and Australia. All combined to provide the vast array of parts. Even the most ardent aviation enthusiast will be amazed at the great resourcefulness, single minded determination shown by Tony throughout this restoration, overcoming personal tragedy, almost impossible logistical problems, scrimping, saving, scrounging, bartering, rummaging and working very long hours and sometimes in very discouraging conditions.
1970: Tony went on holiday to Blackpool and visited a small museum housing the Reflectaire Collection, the then home to Lancaster NX611 along with a Mosquito cockpit displayed nearby identified as HJ711.
1971: Tony located the remains of B.XVI PF498 which had been allocated to RAF Kirkham (No. 10 School of Technical Training, Airframes and Armament) on October 6 1948. On June 6 1955, it was passed on to the Civil Defence Unit at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Chorley, Lancashire, where it was used for crash rescue training, The ravages of this role explain why when Tony first came upon the aircraft the only substantial pieces left were a section of the wing undercarriage assemblies.
1972: The Reflectaire museum had experienced financial difficulties and its assets were to be disposed of at auction on April 29; the Mosquito cockpit was purchased by Tony for £7, about £1,253.00 in today’s values! Also obtained was a rudder for just £2, aileron and rudder pedals.
It would transpire that after the war, the cockpit spent some time with the Air Training Corps and then a Scout group, both in Essex, before moving to a college in Middlesex who intended to build a whole Mosquito. This plan came to naught and the cockpit disappeared into history, as did the nose section, only for the cockpit section to resurface at the Reflectaire collection in Blackpool. At that time the information relating to the history of the cockpit was that it was NF.II HJ711.
HJ711 had served with 141 and 169 Squadrons. While with 169 squadron based at RAF Little Snoring in Norfolk, HJ711 made the squadron’s first kill on January 30 1944. The pilot, Squadron leader J.A.H. Cooper, shot down a Messerschmitt Me-110 whilst patrolling west of Berlin. Tony did have his doubts about the history of the cockpit being a NF.11 as the configuration of the cockpit was that of an FB.VI, but after obtaining permission from the 169 Squadron Association it was thought appropriate to adopt the Squadron and the serial number of HJ711 and fuselage code VI-C.
On the return journey from Blackpool Tony deviated to Chorley in search of the undercarriage assemblies and wing sections located earlier. Having previously obtained permission to remove the wing, prompt removal was required otherwise it was the intention to clear the site by burning the aircraft remains. A friend of Tony's discovered the port and Starboard wing remains from T.III VA878 which had lain derelict in St. David's, South Wales since 1956. On close inspection, Tony found the remains in a poor state, cut off the port wing section and duly transported it home. Now, with undercarriage, wings and cockpit the task was to find a fuselage.
1973: Tony, along with its owner, Eddie Renolds, salvaged the remains of TT.35 RS715 from a deserted film lot behind the MGM studios at Boreham Wood. RS715 had in fact been used in the making of the film 633 Squadron, but sadly was left abandoned for ten years after filming ended. Eddie generously parting with it without payment and thus the fuselage had to be transported back to York, this been done by a trailer and Tony's ever faithful Singer Vogue, cockpit and fuselage came together for the first time in Tony's driveway.
1975: Jim O'Sullivan wrote to inform Tony that they had recovered an ex-141 Squadron Mosquito near Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Thus a pair of needle blade propellers, albeit bent from the crash, joined the Huntington hoard, as did tailplane elevators and other sundry items.
1978: Two Merlin 76 engines became available, the first good engines to become available on the market, were added. Theses came from NF.30 NI616, which had been scrapped at Cosford. Later, however, in a complicated three way deal, Tony was able to acquire the correct engines for HJ711, namely two Merlin 25s. Other parts arriving from all over the country was a pilot's seat from a scrap yard in Warrington.
1986: The Mosquito project took a giant step forward when Tony exchanged the stifling working confines of the garage and driveway of his suburban bungalow for the relatively spacious accommodation offered by the Yorkshire Air Museum. Tony also acquired a towing browser, accumulator and Fordson tractor. The Fordson needed a good deal of work since it's retrieval from a dealer's yard in Ripon.
With reference to the Mosquito herself, much had been restored since HJ711 moved to Elvington. Work was carried out on the ventral doors which had to be mostly rebuilt and the fittings recast. The tail wheel underwent restoration, the undercarriage was totally stripped and the top castings replaced. Also, many repairs were done to the fuselage, but much was still required at that time. The nose also needed attention. Unfortunately, at that time the only drawings available to Tony were from the Mosquito Museum's FB.VI, a mould of which was taken from the inside, in concrete. Substantial internal drawings were vital at that time for work to carry on in that area, these became available at a later date. Tony had also bought a pair of radiators for the Merlins and a trip to Gloucestershire produced several engine fire-walls and general fittings, all in amazingly good condition after almost forty-five years in a gravel pit. A visit to a derelict farm in the wilds of Lincolnshire found several Mosquito wheels and tyres, a good friend travelled to Glen Esk in Scotland to bring Tony and Val back a very well preserved engine nacelle and other smaller items from a crashed Mosquito. This was the former FB.VI HJ720 which had been re-registered as G-AGGF upon transfer to BOAC for high speed runs to Sweden.
1989: New Zealand was the source of another nose cone, cannon frames and escape hatch with the help from the de Havilland Heritage Centre. Then still in 1989 Tony made public his ambition to have the completed Mosquito out on the perimeter track in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight of the de Havilland Night Fighter prototype in 1941. He felt it would be a worthy tribute to all the Mosquito personnel and aircraft that were lost during the war; it would also honour the many thousands of ground-crew who worked so hard, very often in such trying conditions, to keep the squadrons operational.
1989-91: The first Mosquito wing construction since factory production finished all those years ago. Much of the wing is composed of original pieces and many of the fittings are war-time. May 15 1991 - MOSSIE DAY, saw HJ711 on three wheels for the first time in over forty years, when she was wheeled onto the perimeter track at Elvington to greet the then only flying Mosquito in the UK, RR299 owned by British Aerospace at Chester and flown in especially by Peter Henley. The date was particular significant as it was exactly fifty years after the first flight of the Night Fighter Prototype Mosquito, W4052. Many visitors to the museum that day included six pilots and navigators of 169 squadron, HJ711 pilot, Joe Cooper, amongst them. Joe had a very good day recollecting his experiences.
1996: Mosquito HJ711 completed.
2017: Following many years of residence at the Yorkshire Air Museum, Tony moved HJ711 to her new permanent home at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre.
2018: September 18 - HJ711 performs first engine run (port-side) at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, East Kirkby. This first engine run marks the first time since 1948 that a Mosquito has operated at East Kirkby, but more importantly the occasion will mark the first time HJ711 had been operational since the Second World War.
2019: April 29 - With both engines now serviceable, HJ711 performs static engine runs.
2019: May 6 - Short taxy runs take place with both engines running. HJ711 is now the only serviceable (albeit taxying) Mosquito outside of the USA and Canada. Piloted by Andrew Panton with Keith Brenchley as flight engineer and with Tony Agar watching on, these runs were the first time a Mosquito has moved on its own power in the UK since 1996.
2019: May 25 & 27 – HJ711 performs full taxy runs around the grass strip at East Kirkby, with Andrew Panton piloting and Keith Brenchley acting as flight engineer. With HJ711 running well, Tony replaced Keith for one run on the 27th.
2020: HJ711 continues to perform regular taxy runs, including on October 31 her first nocturnal taxy run since 1944.
Karl Kjarsgaard - Director - Bomber Command Museum of Canada says of Tony and Mosquito HJ711:
“What you are seeing in these photos is one of the most technically correct, most authentic Mossies in existence. Each gun, each switch, each panel, each black box for night radar interception of German bombers that is installed on Tony's Mosquito IS correct. It is one of the finest overall restorations on the face of the planet. The Mosquito was literally in pieces when Tony first started with airframe sections from all over the UK! It is not only a tribute to our RAF and RCAF boys who flew in Mossies but also to the relentless and determined perfection by Tony of a flying machine that was a true sword of Freedom. Tony took all the shattered pieces of this sword and moulded it back together over forty plus years and now you see the finished airframe. Sure, you look and see how nice is this Mossie but you do not know what has gone into her; Blood, sweat, and tears. She, the Mossie, does not have "Spirit of Val" painted on her as a whim. There are those average warbird restorations which are adequate and acceptable, BUT then there are those rebuilds that are in the top echelon of excellence for originality and attention to detail.”
Mosquito HJ711 Photo Gallery
