The Starfighter, the Lawn Dart, the Widowmaker, the Missile with a Man it it; regardless of what you may know it as, it’s impossible to deny its influence on military aviation. The first mass-production airframe to ever reach Mach 2, the F-104 was, and still is, used across the globe by both numerous national air forces and private owners alike. Its design echoed the role it was made for, trading complexity and a wide selection of ordnance for a simple design, made for raw speed. While its many nicknames earned it the dubious honor of being an accident-prone aircraft in popular media, it was still an incredibly unique and capable fighter for its time, only being roughly matched in speed by the MiG-21 a few years later.

The story of the Mosquito begins with the founding of Geoffrey de Havilland’s aircraft company which bore his namesake, de Havilland. Around 1908, de Havilland designed his first aeronautical engine, which he then used to power his first aircraft — a small biplane. In 1920, when the aircraft company he worked for — Airco — shut down, he was able to create his own company, de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited, more commonly known as de Havilland.