The account that Kirk Kerkorian gave the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 1999 of his ferrying flights during the second world war looks as if it must have grown in the telling. The Mosquito’s range was extended to 2,430 miles by the installation of extra fuel tanks in the bomb-bay so that it could cross the Atlantic safely without relying on wind assistance. While some 28 aircraft were lost out of the estimated 500 that flew from Canada, the failure rate was nothing like the 75% that Kerkorian later recalled.
