# The plane that started it all....



## dennis420b (Jul 28, 2010)

When I was very young, 4 or 5, my grandfather, an aviation enthusiast, had several books on world war 2 aircraft and I can remember one aircraft in particular that caught my eye, it was the Ju 87 Stuka. It looked very predatory with its fixed gear, large mouth like chin radiator and gull wing. The lines were unclean and the plane just looked brutal, especially in the pictures of it in its diving attack. Every time I would go to my grandparents house I would look at the pictures of that "monster" plane for hours, and then subsequently to the other planes in the book. I still like looking at pictures of the ugly old B and R models, and imagine it pouncing on its target with pinpoint accuracy and the sound of the dive sirens blaring away.

At that early age my imagination was let loose on those pages of great planes, and my life would never be the same again. So I guess for me the Ju 87 was the plane that started it all.


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## T Bolt (Jul 28, 2010)

It was the Thunderbolt for me. I can remember drawing pictures of it in 2nd grade.


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## B-17engineer (Jul 28, 2010)

Lancaster!


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## mandoman (Jul 28, 2010)

I always wondered how all of this got started.   

B-17. Definately the B-17 for me.


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## jamierd (Jul 28, 2010)

when my father passed in 1975 he was half way through building a hurricane thats what got me started


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## Thorlifter (Jul 28, 2010)

I think most all of us have a story like that. For me it was 1977 and I flipped on Baa Baa Black Sheep and saw those beautiful Corsair's.

Greatest plane ever invented!!!!!!


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## r2800doublewasp (Jul 28, 2010)

The B-17 and the P-51 was what started it for me.


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## Marcel (Jul 28, 2010)

For me the D.XXI and the G.I. When I was a child I had a fiction book about a group of Dutch pilots in WWII. I kept on reading the first part about the May war and those mysterious Fokkers.


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## Bucksnort101 (Jul 28, 2010)

1st Grade, had to do a presentation in front of the class on any subject I chose. Not sure how it came about, but decided to do it on the P-40. My Mother bought me one of those old Revell 1/32 P-40 Warhawk models to build and use during the presentation. The rest is history.


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## BombTaxi (Jul 28, 2010)

My grandfather was an RAF and RAFVR fighter pilot and instructor, with time on Vampires, Spits, Harvards and Chipmunks among other things. As a small child his stories, along with the pilots notes, nav computers, helmet and other memorabilia I used to play with (!) got me hooked. I even spent five years in the Air Cadets before the RAF said my eyesight was too poor for an aircrew role


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## buffnut453 (Jul 28, 2010)

I was about 4 or 5 years old when I went to my first ever airshow at Woodford in Cheshire. Whilst walking around the various displays and stalls, the Red Arrows (9 x Folland Gnats in formation....ahhh, happy days!!) flew overhead, very low, from behind us with natural  results. My mum bought me a Matchbox kit of a Gnat and we built it together at home the following day. Within a year, I'd made my first ever kit on my own - a Frog Mosquito - closely followed by an Airfix Hurricane. By then, I was hooked. And I still am!


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## Airframes (Jul 28, 2010)

I think I first got an interest at a very early age, after walking through a hangar, and bumping my head on a wing belonging to Iccarus..........


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## buffnut453 (Jul 28, 2010)

Yeah, Airframes...my dad was Pontius and he was a pilot....


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## Njaco (Jul 28, 2010)

My dad had tons of books including some colorful ones - a series - about different Aces of WWI. I picked up his copy of "God is My Co-Pilot" and was the first book that I devoured. The P-40 was that awesome plane with the cool camo job and as my dad owned a hobby shop, that was the first model I made. Loved it ever since. Read "The Bond Knight" and that got me into the Luftwaffe. As all the women in my life would agree, its been all downhill ever since!


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## N4521U (Jul 28, 2010)

3rd grade, 8 years old, 1951, lived in San Lorenzo, CA. 
The Hayward National Guard flew all these big silver, throaty sounding, fire spitting P-51's. 
I rode my bike down to the Hayward A.P. as often as I could and stood at the end of the runway, gobsmacked, watching them fly in and out over and across the main street of Hayward. Why didn't everyone else notice them????
Were they blind, deaf? Go figure, it felt like I was the only one noticing. 

Cheers, Just Plane Bill


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## RabidAlien (Jul 29, 2010)

It was the P-38, for me. Everyone else was enamored of the P-51, or F-14/16/18's, I just had to be different. So I found a non-traditional-looking airplane and loved it! Shortly thereafter, I discovered the P-61, and a naughty little love-triangle was formed.


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## Loiner (Jul 29, 2010)

One of my early inspirations was a Hurricane that featured in one of those cartoon strip style 'Commando' books.

In that story it was escorting a British convoy of trucks in the desert and running short of fuel had to land on the sand and re-fuel from one of the trucks before getting back in the air and beating off a German attack. Excellant reading for that stage of my development, I immediately got started on a Lego Hurricane with retracting undercarriage, a couple of years later was introduced to the concept of the model kit .. the rest as they say is history, but I've had a soft spot for Hurricanes ever since.


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## Lucky13 (Jul 29, 2010)

Matchbox 1/32 SBD Dauntless....


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## syscom3 (Jul 29, 2010)

Mongram 1/48 TBF Avenger and Revell 1/72 B-24 "Blue Sreak".


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## Matt308 (Jul 29, 2010)

Bucksnort101 said:


> 1st Grade, had to do a presentation in front of the class on any subject I chose. Not sure how it came about, but decided to do it on the P-40. My Mother bought me one of those old Revell 1/32 P-40 Warhawk models to build and use during the presentation. The rest is history.



You stole my words, Buck. My dad bought me the same kit. Put it together with no paint, just plain grey plastic. And I was in love. And then I started paying attention to the World at War series every Saturday at4:00pm..


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## Catch22 (Jul 29, 2010)

The F4U. Was/is my dad's favorite plane, and he built me a model of it before I was even born! Still have it. Ever since I've just been surrounded by model aircraft so naturally I gained an interest. Favorite plane is still the Corsair, though through the years I went through Mustang, P-61 and F-18 phases.


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## rochie (Jul 29, 2010)

i saw reach for the sky and was amazed by this guy with no legs flying Hurricanes and spitfires, then was even more amazed when i found out it was real and Douglas Bader was a real person. after that i was hooked !!!!


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## Gnomey (Jul 29, 2010)

Can't remember exactly where it started but the aircraft in question was the Spitfire (and partly the Hurricane). As far as I can remember it started with Bader's Biography and just progressed through various other books till it got to the stage it is now.


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## Matt308 (Jul 29, 2010)

Bader. Now there is a true hero.


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## Peebs (Jul 30, 2010)

watched the film battle of britain with my grandfather way back when.... hooked on wwii planes ever since as for a fav??? probably the spitfire was the first


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## hawkeye2an (Jul 30, 2010)

B-17 for me, Dad built a model when I was about 6 or 7 and hung it from the light fixture in my brother and I's room.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jul 30, 2010)

For me it was the Bf 109. I just love the aircraft, especially the Bf 109G. 

To me it is the way a Warbird should look. Beautiful and graceful, yet mean and angry. It looks like it was meant to kill, especially from the front.

After seeing one for the first time, I just totally fell in love with it. It is my favorite aircraft to this date. I also feel very fortunate to actually have seen a Bf 109G in flight.


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## mandoman (Jul 31, 2010)

buffnut453 said:


> Yeah, Airframes...my dad was Pontius and he was a pilot....



Yeesh, and I thought my comment was bad.


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## vikingBerserker (Jul 31, 2010)

Yes pretty dam funny!

My first model was an old Revell Snap-Tite P-51, and like several have said, the rest is history.


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## dennis420b (Jul 31, 2010)

I am just glad that this forum is here, I really don't have anybody around me that gets into planes as much as I do. I tried explaining to my wife what was so funny about "Ju 52 bacon slicer?????" several times, but she just cant get it. I on the other hand laugh every time I read it. Thanks vikingBerserker its got to be one of the funniest things I have ever heard. And thanks to all of the forum for just being the wing nuts that you are.


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## imalko (Jul 31, 2010)

First aircraft which I saw up close (and was allowed to seat into the cockpit) was MiG-21 on static display at an Airshow when I was some 5-6 years old. 
First model I've build (of wood and metal) - Ju 87 Stuka. 
My all time favorite aircraft - Messerschmitt Bf 109, especially F/G/K models. Since I started to learn from books about it and saw one Bf 109 in a museum in Belgrade I've became fascinated with this aircraft and continue to be ever since.


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## Oggie2620 (Aug 1, 2010)

Short Stirlings 75 (NZ) Sqn.... Apparently some Dutch guys have found one just off the coast and it might be nearly complete. The family want it brought up so their relatives can be buried properly. If they get what they want maybe we get a complete Stirling too.....Got a chance to get on the Lanc while at RIAT.... Feel both honoured and awed by that beauty. would love to fly in her!


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## Matt308 (Aug 2, 2010)

Oh yes... my most favorite British bomber is the Stirling. Love the stunted wings and all.


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## Vic Balshaw (Aug 3, 2010)

For me it was seeing the Bristol Barbizon flying over the house at Bristol in the late 40s, a picture that has always stuck in my mind. Then a couple of years later I was playing under the wings and in and out of the undercarriages of Wellington Bombers anchored down and mothballed in open storage at RAF Hullavington in the very early 50s. Plastic aircraft kits were just coming back on the market then following the recovery from WWII.


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## muscogeemike (Sep 8, 2010)

For me it was the Lockheed P-38. In the 1950’s I had a friend who’s father had flown recon P-38’s and B-25’s in the Pacific during the war. He (the pilot) and a friend bought a surplus P-38 and installed a rear seat, I got to fly with him once. I grew up in S. Calif and near a Lockheed plant and remember Lightings (I assume they were test aircraft) flying over the schoolyard.

"the ultimate air superiority is a tank on the runway"


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## tyrodtom (Sep 8, 2010)

When I was about 11-12 there was a small airstrip about 3/4 mile from my home. There was just 2 aircraft there, a clipped wing J 3 Piper Cub, and a J 5 Piper. I would walk down thru the woods and sit in them and let my imagination soar.
The strip was only about 600-800 feet, on a moutaintop, with a uphill on one end, and a cliff on the other. A one-way runway. They could only use it when the wind was right. They only used it for 4-5 years, eventually they made another on top of another mountain on the other side of town with a 1200 ft runway.


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## diddyriddick (Sep 9, 2010)

Not sure I can name just one. As ya'll know, we had family connections with the B-17. I can also remember watching Tora! Tora! Tora! and Midway as a kid, and thinking how cool the Zeroes, Wildcats, and Warhawks were.


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## tail end charlie (Sep 9, 2010)

diddyriddick said:


> Not sure I can name just one. As ya'll know, we had family connections with the B-17. I can also remember watching Tora! Tora! Tora! and Midway as a kid, and thinking how cool the Zeroes, Wildcats, and Warhawks were.



F 4 Phantom and jet provost, I used to walk with my uncle on the north york moors which was (is ?) a low level training area for the RAF, this was before any official height restrictions, you didnt hear them coming just a whistling then a BOOM as they passed overhead. Sometimes it felt like you could hit them by throwing a stone. The best was a Vulcan flying up farndale, it seemed to be doing about 50MPH and you heard the engines thundering for ages afterwards.


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## Night Fighter Nut (Sep 9, 2010)

It started for me when my dad was a Cobra pilot in Vietnam. I remember watching a firepower display they use to do during the war. I was maybe six years old and sitting in the stands with my mom watching the rounds from the display impacting down range. Then from behind, two cobras flew directly over us while letting loose with everything they had. All I could say was WOW! I actually got to sit in the cobra later on that day. It was awesome. I can't remember exactly how many cobra models I've built but it was a fair few. I later switched to WWII aircraft thanks to a neighbor of mine. He gave my brother and I model planes. It's always been WWII planes ever since.


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## KevinK. (Sep 28, 2010)

Let's see. I saw John Wayne in 'Flying Tigers' and fell in love with the P40... Then it was the 'Black Sheep' tv show and fell for the Corsair. 

Oh.. I saw the John Wayne flick on TV in the early 80's. I'm not that old.


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## P40NUT (Oct 1, 2010)

P40 and F4u Corsair. Also the B17.


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## ToughOmbre (Oct 1, 2010)

The Flying Fortress

Always wanted to be a waist gunner.

TO


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## evangilder (Oct 1, 2010)

I spent some of my growing up years in Dayton, Ohio. When I was real young, my father put me in the car and we parked at the end of the runway at Wright Patterson. I sat in awe and watched the final landing of the XB-70 when it came in to be part of the museum. I spent the next several years visiting the Air Force Museum and Carillon Park. Carillon Park had the Wright bicycle shop and one of the original gliders. 

We moved to Wisconsin when I was about 13. Back in those days, the EAA HQ was still in Milwaukee and I would visit there often, the going to Airventure in my teen years.

But it all began with that Valkyrie. What a sight to behold.


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## stug3 (Oct 1, 2010)

This book cover I saw in the Monroeville Public Library did it to me when I was 10 years old.


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