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My name is Ian and I live in the North East of England, near Hadrian's Wall...
I've had a long time fascination with military aviation, and WW2 in particular, since I was a lad. I walk my dog every morning along the coast and you can still see cannon strikes on the sandstone rocks where we walk. This is where Typhoons practiced on old tank hulks positioned on the cliff edge - before deploying to France against the real thing. It was probably learning of things like that, growing up in an age not too long after WW2 and of course the films from the time - e.g. 'Reach for the Sky' that started my lifelong interest.
I really like early jet aircraft too, and over the years when growing up (due to being fairly near to a training range) have always stopped to look up - sometimes not very far up! - to see Meteors, Javelins, Shackletons, Hunters, Canberras, Vulcans, Buccaneers, Lightnings, Phantoms, Harriers, Jaguars and Tornados - as well as Sabres, Starfighters, F111s, F15s, F16s, A10s and others.
RAF Acklington was within easy travelling when I was young and my dad took me there in 1960 to my first airshow (where I saw my first Spitfire!) I've gone to numerous airshows since (including RIAT Fairford) and I always love watching and listening to the old birds. I've photos somewhere, so I'll see if any are worth posting here.
You can probably tell that my 21st birthday was a while ago!
I've read lots of books from the period - a favourite is, 'The Big Show' by Pierre Clostermann, I've made the plastic model kits in my time, and still take an interest wherever I can.
Looks like a great site, and I'm looking forward to spending many a happy hour here!
I've had a long time fascination with military aviation, and WW2 in particular, since I was a lad. I walk my dog every morning along the coast and you can still see cannon strikes on the sandstone rocks where we walk. This is where Typhoons practiced on old tank hulks positioned on the cliff edge - before deploying to France against the real thing. It was probably learning of things like that, growing up in an age not too long after WW2 and of course the films from the time - e.g. 'Reach for the Sky' that started my lifelong interest.
I really like early jet aircraft too, and over the years when growing up (due to being fairly near to a training range) have always stopped to look up - sometimes not very far up! - to see Meteors, Javelins, Shackletons, Hunters, Canberras, Vulcans, Buccaneers, Lightnings, Phantoms, Harriers, Jaguars and Tornados - as well as Sabres, Starfighters, F111s, F15s, F16s, A10s and others.
RAF Acklington was within easy travelling when I was young and my dad took me there in 1960 to my first airshow (where I saw my first Spitfire!) I've gone to numerous airshows since (including RIAT Fairford) and I always love watching and listening to the old birds. I've photos somewhere, so I'll see if any are worth posting here.
You can probably tell that my 21st birthday was a while ago!
I've read lots of books from the period - a favourite is, 'The Big Show' by Pierre Clostermann, I've made the plastic model kits in my time, and still take an interest wherever I can.
Looks like a great site, and I'm looking forward to spending many a happy hour here!
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