The plane that started it all....

[dennis420b]

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.

 

[T Bolt]

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

 

[B-17engineer]

Lancaster!

 

[mandoman]

I always wondered how all of this got started.

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

 

[jamierd]

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

 

[Thorlifter]

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!!!!!!

 

[r2800doublewasp]

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

 

[Marcel]

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.

 

[Bucksnort101]

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.

 

[BombTaxi]

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

 

[buffnut453]

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!

 

[Airframes]

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..........

 

[buffnut453]

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

 

[Njaco]

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!

 

[N4521U]

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

 

[RabidAlien]

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.

 

[Loiner]

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.

 

[Lucky13]

Matchbox 1/32 SBD Dauntless....

 

[syscom3]

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

 

[Matt308]

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..