1939 | The WW2 De Havilland Mosquitos.

In 1939, Venesta was one of the companies to provide plywood to build the famous De Havilland Mosquitos.

A ground-breaking aircraft in so many ways, The Mosquito was built by a network of often small and medium sized enterprises up and down the UK, all coming together to build what was then the world’s fastest production aircraft. ‘The Mossie’ or ‘Wooden Wonder’, as it was affectionately known, became the most versatile British aircraft of the Second World War.

When combat aircraft were designed and built in metal, the choice of wood offered major advantages. It was possible to reduce the initial design time and to build the prototype more rapidly than in metal. The use of wood avoided additional strain upon wartime metal supplies and skilled labour was readily available because of the restrictions imposed on furniture manufacturing.

Venesta had been badly damaged during bombing raids early in the war, resulting in a standstill of plywood production. But any equipment that could be salvaged and some Venesta employees were relocated to High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, to help establish production. 

*Sourced from https://www.laceygreen.com/Sections/History/Mosquito.pdf

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