London Colney aircraft museum has stolen propeller replaced - 11 years after it was taken

An antique propeller from a vintage plane that was stolen was replaced with a replica recently - more than a decade after it was taken.

Veterans and volunteers gathered at the deHavilland museum in London Colney for a unique memorial to celebrate the installation of the replica Moquito aircraft propeller.

Eleven years ago, shortly after the dedication of the International Mosquito Air and Ground Crew memorial at the museum, the then damaged propeller, which was involved in a crash, was stolen by scrap metal thieves.

But a specialist company in Suffolk recently gifted the museum a full-size fibreglass, undamaged replica of the three blade Mosquito ‘airscrew’.

A ceremony was held at the museum and attended by volunteers and long-time museum member, 94-year-old flight lieutenant Reg Davey.

After the sounding of the Last Post by a local brass band, Mr Davey led the wreath-laying ceremony.

The memorial was held in the grounds of Salisbury Hall which in 1940 became de Havilland’s design office for the Mosquito and later the museum.

The new propeller is on the site of the special hangars which were initially built for construction of the first four Mosquito aircrafts.

The first Mosquito prototype is the star exhibit at the museum and one of three on display there, more than at any other museum in the world.

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