De Havilland Canada - Second World War

Second World War

The de Havilland Tiger Moth was a basic trainer of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) during the Second World War, whereby air crews from all over the British Commonwealth trained in Canada. DHC was a Canadian unit of the parent British de Havilland and during World War II was made into a crown corporation of the Canadian government.

Production of the Mosquito, nicknamed the "Mossie," was the company's greatest contribution to the war effort. To reduce wartime metal use, the airframe was constructed almost entirely out of plywood. The design intent of the Mosquito was speed instead of defensive armament, and as a result it was one of the fastest aircraft in the war, reaching 425 mph at 30,000 ft. The original design was intended as a light bomber, but soon proved itself in high-level photography and every phase of intruder operations.

Out of the more than 7,000 Mosquitoes produced overall by de Havilland, de Havilland Canada produced 1,134. Several were lost en route across the Atlantic and 500 were delivered to the UK by the end of the war.