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WW II plane buffs?

steve s said:
My father flew a B-17 during the war, so I grew up being a plane buff. I must have had two dozen plane models hanging by threads from my bedroom ceiling.
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My great uncle was a bombardier in the Pacific; I wish I'd asked him more questions when I had the chance, though to be honest he didn't seem overly eager to talk about his experiences. A lot of what I know of his war service is second hand from other family members, and from my grandfather's scrapbook.

If any of you have heard of the great Ken McCullar, one of the pioneers of skip bombing, my uncle was his bombardier for a while, though my uncle was grounded with dysentery for the mission on which McCullar and the rest of his crew were killed.
 
I'm no buff but have fond memories of my bedroom ceiling covered with a mishmash of fighters and bombers complete with teased-out cotton balls for smoke and red-painted for fire!

Loved the Mustang and the Spitfire but no-one's mentioned ...



The Stuka with its rear gunner and those kick-ass guns!



(Crud, can't post links yet, someone please post a nice pic!)

I can hardly wait to get my son over to the Hamilton War Plane Museum and our still-flying Lancaster! It roars!

Cheers,
Jeff
 
JDC said:
The Stuka with its rear gunner and those kick-ass guns!



(Crud, can't post links yet, someone please post a nice pic!)
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Originals and other photos of this outstanding model here.
 
Boy am I glad I used teh Googlez to look up the Flying Wing from Raiders of the Lost Ark before I posted...

Having said that, I think my favorite (actual) aircraft from the time is the Spitfire.
 
aggle-rithm said:
About ten years ago I was working in an office when suddenly the whole building began to shake. It felt and sounded like the world was coming to an end.

Fortunately, one of the guys in the office knew what was going on. It was a squadron of B17s flying over, on their way to a local air base.

Damn, but they were loud!
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.
After the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, at Lockheed's Rye Canyon Research lab, we were discussing it. One of our "captured German scientists" said... "One tausand B-17s makes more noise!" :)
 
I might have slowly turned into a warbird hipster. I started off with the usual suspects (Hellcat, Mustang, Zero, Spitfire, 109, etc) but gradually became more interested in the lower tier of knowns (P-40, Yak-3/7/9, Ki-43 Oscar, P-39) and now what lights me up are things like the MS. 406/410, the Ki-27, Gloster Gladiator, MC. 200 Saetta.

My preferred markings also slowly changed in taste, too. While nothing will ever look as gorgeous as an RAF Kittyhawk in middlestone/brown/azure North African colours, I like the MS. 406/410 best in Finnish or Swiss colours; the Ki-27 in Manchurian markings; Bf 109 G in Croatian markings.

I don't know if I intentionally steered away from commons towards the more obscure, or if it just evolved that way naturally as I became overly familiar with those types and discovered new ones to ogle.

The only constant is a trend towards low performance and pretty colours. A silver Mustang is an elegant craft to behold, pure thoroughbred beauty - but I'd still give my heart to a clunky underpowered Saetta with a mottled tan/green leopard print skin.
 
P-51... Growing up during WWII, I'd seen a few of the various planes flying around. A P-47 flew between our house and the one next door, hitting their chimney with a wing tip.
Would chase the blimps dropping War Bond appeals.. blimp shaped... :)
Saw the hole in the Empire State Building the day after.
But....
In 1971, in the back seat of the Van Nuys Mustang Club P-51... when the plane left the runway, and the gear was retracting.. I said "That's IT! Life is now complete, take me now!".... :D:D:D:D
Sadly that plane later did a Figure-9 into the desert.
I see many warbirds over time, out here. There's been B-25s flying around recently. Distinctive noise, as is the C-47 that comes by.
 
Trivia, I met Gen Tibbets (pilot of Enola Gay). Very engaging speaker, nice guy.

I was focused on the model planes too back when. Also liked the Stuka, tank on wheels!
 
About 5 years ago I went to the Ottawa Air Rally. (Basically an air-show featuring various propeller-driven planes, some old, some recent, some military, some civilian, some flying, some just on display.)

Parked on one of the side runways they had a Corsair, Mustang and Spitfire.

I just happened to be fortunate enough to be standing near the runway when it was time to send them up for their display. So I was standing directly in front as all 3 started their engines and started taxing down the runway.
 

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SpitfireIX said:
Originals and other photos of this outstanding model here.
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MODEL!

:jaw-dropp

Wow - 1/72nd scale. I didn't have an inkling of a suspicion when I looked at the photos.

Loving this thread btw - one of my faves (after Spitfire) would also be the DeHaviland Mosquito - the 'flying soapbox', the world's first stealth plane.

Yuri
 
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