It was unofficially named Moskito due to its similarities with the de Havilland Mosquito (which was also largely made of wood) that were already in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

[2] This schedule proved highly unrealistic in light of various technical and logistical issues, with key parts (such as engines) not being available in sufficient quantity.

Perhaps most crucially, the only factory that produced Tego-Film, in Wuppertal, was bombed by the RAF while replacement bonding agents proved to be inferior and a source of catastrophic mid-flight structural failures.

[1] One such aircraft, the Heinkel He 219, was already in development, however, during September 1942, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) issued a fresh requirement that called for a specialised night fighter that, unlike the He 219, would be primarily constructed out of wood.

The intended benefit of this decision was not only as an economic measure to minimise the use of metal but also to take advantage of Germany's available labour pool, which had numerous skilled woodworkers that had not effectively transitioned to metalworking.

The envisioned Ta 21 bomber was a high-wing twin-engined design, built primarily of plywood and bonded with a special phenolic resin adhesive called Tego film.

It was at this stage that the Ta 154 designation was applied to the aircraft; unofficially, it was named Moskito in reference to its similarity to the de Havilland Mosquito fast bombers (which was also largely made of wood) already in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

[7] On 1 July 1943, the prototype Ta 154 V1, which was outfitted with Jumo 211F engines and bore the Stammkennzeichen identification code TE+FE, performed its maiden flight in the hands of Kurt Tank.

[citation needed] During March 1944, the Jägerstab decreed that Focke-Wulf should produce 37 Ta 154s by May 1944; in combination with other manufacturing assets, the production rate was somewhat unrealistically expected to reach 250 aircraft per month by November 1944.

[2] Transportation issues, which prevented subcontractors from delivering components, were highly damaging to the company's efforts to ramp up production; at one point, each airframe was reportedly taking 12,000 man-hours to produce.

[2] While determined efforts were made towards this end, the new bonding agents proved to be neither as strong and even weakened the wood due to it containing too much acid and thus being corrosive.

In July 1944, several Ta 154 A-1s reportedly disintegrated during high speed flight, allegedly due to the delamination and failure of the plywood wing.

The only one of the three that was actually brought to operational readiness (Ta 154A-2/U3) was a system whereby the entire forward fuselage ahead of the fuel tanks was filled with Amatol high explosive.

From this cramped cabin, the pilot would fly the 'Bomb Moskito ' into an Allied bomber formation, arm the onboard charges and quickly bail out.

[8] It was hoped that this flying bomb system would tear large holes in the Anglo-American bomber streams at little cost to the Luftwaffe in terms of pilot casualties.

Takeoff would be effected via a sturdy three-wheeled trolley of the same type designed for the abandoned A-series of the Arado Ar 234 jet reconnaissance bomber.