The plane that started it all....

[Catch22]

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.

 

[rochie]

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 !!!!

 

[Gnomey]

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.

 

[Matt308]

Bader. Now there is a true hero.

 

[Peebs]

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

 

[hawkeye2an]

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.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

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.

 

[mandoman]

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

Yeesh, and I thought my comment was bad.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Yes pretty dam funny!

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

 

[dennis420b]

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.

 

[imalko]

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.

 

[Oggie2620]

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!

 

[Matt308]

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

 

[Vic Balshaw]

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.

 

[muscogeemike]

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"

 

[tyrodtom]

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.

 

[diddyriddick]

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.

 

[tail end charlie]

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.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

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.

 

[KevinK.]

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.