Warbird Information Exchange

Glyn Powell QSM 1934 - 2019.
It is with a heavy heart and enormous sadness to announce that my dearest friend Glyn Powell passed away yesterday 26th November. Glyn passed peacefully in a rest home surrounded by his immediate family. Glyn had been unwell for some time but his sudden passing still comes as a huge shock.

It was Glyn’s enormous vision, courage and determination that enabled him to build from scratch, all the necessary tooling to rebuild the wooden DH Mosquito airframe, something thought impossible by everyone except Glyn. The complex fuselage moulds alone took Glyn five years to build and they are an engineering masterpiece in their own right. As a result of Glyn’s vision, there are now three NZ restored Mosquitos flying in the USA with two more on their way. Glyn received The Queens Services Medal (QSM) for services to aeronautical heritage preservation in 2014.

Sadly, Glyn never saw his initial ambition of completing and flying his own Mosquito NZ2308. However NZ2308 is earmarked for the Mosquito Pathfinders Trust in the UK, and all going to plan, it will be completed at Avspecs at Ardmore and operated by the Pathfinders Trust out of Duxford UK. A fitting legacy to Glyn and his remarkable achievements.

Glyn’s enormous self belief and never give up attitude is an inspiration to us all. He must rank as one of our most remarkable New Zealanders, who against all odds, achieved the impossible in his own shed on a shoe string budget. It has been a complete and utter privilege to have known him.