How did you get into Aviation?

• Wednesday at 3:04 PM

• #1

Tomcat

Recruit

7

2

Nov 15, 2024

My dad was a pilot and i have been around aviation and airplanes my whole life
HBU?
Tomcat

 

• Thursday at 6:17 AM

• #2

Torch

Senior Master Sergeant

3,113

996

Feb 9, 2006

Florida

My dad was a head mechanic in the test cell for Pan Am at JFK but I always loved planes and cars from a very early age

 

• Thursday at 6:25 AM

• #3

Capt. Vick

Moderator

Staff

Mod

13,849

5,927

Jul 23, 2008

Long Island, New York

One of the first things I ever said was "umburger", while pointing to an airplane flying over. I may not have known the word for it, but even then I knew that I loved them.

 

• Thursday at 10:18 AM

• #4

SaparotRob

Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII

15,160

16,343

Mar 12, 2020

Long Island, NY

I must've been about 4 when my aunt bought me a tin(?) airplane. It was painted these beautiful greens and browns. I couldn't understand why they would put "bullseyes" on it, though. About a year later. I got another one from my aunt after the original was written off for salvage. She told me it was something called a "Spitfire". I finally understood what the cat in a Warner Brother's cartoon meant when he said "Look at me. I'm a Spitfire!"

 

• Thursday at 10:53 AM

• #5

S

special ed

2nd Lieutenant

5,600

13,940

May 13, 2018

My father told us that while living in Washington D.C. from 1941 - 1945, our apartment was under the flight path of Boling Field. He claimed I would sit on my tricycle in the rear yard and watch P-40s landing. He said I would look up at them until I fell over backward hitting my head. I don't think there was any permanent effect, as I'm all right ....I'm all right .. I'm all right.

 

• Thursday at 11:03 AM

• #6

tomo pauk

Creator of Interesting Threads

14,374

4,692

Apr 3, 2008

Probably all the young boys were in awe wrt. everything aircraft. Some of them grew up, but we - the lucky bunch - never did.

 

• Thursday at 11:37 AM

• #7

F

Frog

Staff Sergeant

1,117

3,035

Jun 11, 2021

France

Probably because of the models my brothers were assembling.

 

• Thursday at 1:31 PM

• #8

Thumpalumpacus

Major

10,047

15,670

Feb 5, 2021

Tejas

My grandfather was KIA over Germany in WWII. When I learned that, I started reading up on both airplanes and the war. Eventually I enlisted in the USAF and was assigned to the Mighty 8th as a fire-fighter.

 

• Thursday at 1:54 PM

• #9

herman1rg

Master Sergeant

2,272

1,076

Dec 3, 2008

I blame my parents, my Father served in WW2 British army. Not long after I was born My Father and Mother would take me up to the back of a local airfield where they were filming something called "The Battle of Britain" so I saw Spitfires, Hurricanes, Buchons and CASA 2.111s....

 

• Thursday at 2:27 PM

• #10

GTX

Colonel

14,995

50,618

Dec 18, 2015

Originally via Grandfather who served in RAAF during WWII. Eventually joined RAAF myself. Now in Aerospace/Defence Industry.

 

• Thursday at 3:45 PM

• #11

Airframes

Benevolens Magister

62,992

12,537

Aug 24, 2008

Cheshire, UK

I guess I was possibly born with a love of aircraft, and then really got the bug when my older brother took me to the local airport in the late 1950's, when I was around 7 years old. He was a member of the enthusiasts group there, and they were allowed access to the hangars, ramp and most areas, in the days when airport security didn't really exist.
Great to see the civil aircraft of the time, mainly Dakotas, Vikings and Ambassadors, with the odd "exotic" types, such as Viscounts, Constellations, Bristol Freighters, and maybe even a Britannia, alongside light aircraft such as Austers, Proctors, Tiger Moths and so on.
Even better was being able to get up close, and even be allowed access inside many of the aircraft, with the ultimate excitement being when I sat in the co-pilot's seat of a Dakota (an ex-RAF, WW2 veteran) and "helped" to taxi it.