When did you first become interested in Warbirds?

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Although my grandfather was in WW2 and my step Dad was in Vietnam its hard to say what sparked my interests in planes. The earliest that I can remember was building and playing with snap tite models. Sptitfire, P-51 Mustang and of course the P-40 B Flying Tigers. I used to take them in the car with me and would roll down the windows and pretend they were flying.
 
I recall as a small boy that my father used to spend more time with his eyes looking skyward than in any other direction. He was fascinated with aircraft of all types but specifically those of WWII heritage. And, in the early 50's there were still a reasonable number around. He could identify anything! His first real job was with the old Douglas Aircraft Company in Toronto.

He used to tell stories of his and his brother's early training in the RCAF. His brother was killed in a mid air in 1943 and dad, being the sole surviving family member was washed out at his mother's request. I don't think he ever forgave her.

His father was an aerial gunner in the first war, in a british pusher type. Received wounds that would shorten his life. So, my interest is now in the 3rd generation. When I lived in Texas, I had the good fortune to fly two Commemorative Airaircraft on a few occasions, one being a PV-2 Harpoon by the name of Fat Cat II and the other a PBJ known as Devil Dog, my current avatar. I've had the bug myself for over 50 years now. I thoroughly enjoy building accurate representative models, but that can't even compare to actually getting to work on and crew in the real thing!

For some reason, my interest never bridged the gap to modern jet military aircraft. Call me old school if you will, but if it doesn't have a prop, then your just along for the ride !

Chris
 
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When I got my first BF-109 model at nine. After that I just studied all types of WW2 planes. My grandpa wasn't an airman, though he was a radioman in the Phil. Army and he trained in New Jersey in the mid fifties as well as Korea.

There was time when I was in school in a field trip that they took us to Nichols (Now Villamor) Airbase in Pasay City. I remember a PAF F-86 Sabre there, but I didn't see the P-51. *Sigh*
 
My interest in warbirds is due to a combination of people i think.

When i was very young, about 6/7, i lived in a block of flats, and the father of one of my best friends was ex-RAF. He used to build my friend models and hang them from the ceiling, then we would drag them down and play air wars! haha i still remember a Bf109 he made, and he painted some cotton wool like flames and stuck it to the plane so it looked like it had been attacked. I can still see it now. I reckon this is where it all started. I also remember this friend introducing me to Memphis Belle, one of my favourite films of all time.

Then an uncle of mine realised my interest, and arranged for an airshow visit to Duxford, with the whole family. Now i was about eight. One of my first airshow memories is an Avro Vulcan roaring over us, and making me cry lol i have the picture it always brings a smile to my face. The same uncle was also very interested in WW1 and WW2 so every time i visited we would watch the discovery channel and his videos on all sorts, from the sinking of the Bismarck to the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. He really got me stuck into this whole era of warbirds, after my early interest.

My mum also had a big part in fueling my interest. We used to visit the Royal Tournament at Earls Court London every year, and i remember speaking with RAF pilots, and really wishing i could do that one day. Unfortunately that never worked out so i'm trying to work out what's next for me in life. I missed Flying Legends this year, but have been several times in the last few years, and i was there when the Fairey Battle crashed a few years back, which was a sad day.

I dabbled a little in model making but i stopped because i'm just not very good at it, maybe ill pursue it again when im older and have a better hand for it. I always make a mess with glue and paint. I do have a 48scale B24 i am very proud of though but it's in the loft gathering dust.

I've had a couple of flying lessons but they're too expensive right now. I'm training as a mechanic and hope this one day leads to restoring Spitfires or any other warbirds. Engines especially interest me. Anyway i think i've gone OT here so ill shadap!
 
I will be ranked as a "junior member" because I only joined today, but from a quick scan of some forum pages I tend to conclude I may well be one of the more litterally senior members as I was born in 1934. I have very vivid and documented recollections of WW2, during which I happened to live at various locations where there was action in The Netherlands ("Holland" to many of you, I suppose) then occupied by the Nazis.
I'm not sure this thread is still very active as the last post was about two weeks ago and I don't know whether one gets automatic "new mail" notification once logged in so I'll just ask whether there is interest in my first-hand experience of that period?
 
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I mis-remembered what my fathers friend (my dentist) did during the war...He was an American Japanese that was in "Military Intelligence". He was involved in monitoring Japanese broadcasts during the bombing of Hiroshima. He was from Hawaii and had been given a lot of grief (after the war) from fellow Japanese Americans (at home, in Hawaii), because they felt he was a traitor... My father was in Japan during the war, but was good friends with him...after the war. He used to tell me story's of watching fighter planes on some island in the Pacific, and I think I must have confused his story's with those my uncle Gene told me...he was connected with the 14th in China....anyway, I just thought I would set that right. :BIG:

The reason I became interested was because so many adults (as I grew up) talked about the war like it had just happened...It made me curious.

[edit] Gene was in the 14th Air Force...uncle Robert drove a half track in Europe (Battle of the Bulge)
 
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I loved planes when I was 3, when I used to open the car doors while we were driving becuase I thought they were wings.
 
First it was Crewchief only (I would translate that as "Oberschwarzmann" ...) but as more people are now joining in, I know that this thread is still active and everybody is not taking time off in exotic holiday resorts. I'll write in separate batches to avoid overly long messages that nobody reads anyway...

"Flying machines" are among my very first memories. From 1934 until 1937 we were living near Ypenburg airfield (in the vicinity of The Hague) where the "Luchtvaartafdeling" (military aviation department) was flying machines like the Fokker CV biplane, and regularly flew over.

But by far my most vivid memory was the zeppelin Hindenburg flying over our house in 1936 (I was 2 then!). That was not the flight that ended in disaster, by the way. A silver cigar of almost 250 metres long that stays in the air despite almost standing still looks impossible and it's no wonder that I can recall that image after more than 70 years...

In early 1940, I could read fairly well and one of my first serious books was about aircraft, teaching me the difference between air-cooled and liquid-cooled engines, for instance. The attack in the West, on May 10th, 1940, began with bombing and paratroop landings. By then we were living in the Hague, about a mile from one of the royal palaces that was the target of a paratroop detachment - an operation that failed. We stayed indoors so I did not see anything, but the next day "we ran out of milk" and because that was an intolerable situation, of course, we did some shopping. Even in the midst of war, people try to continue their normal life and shops were open for "business as usual". A bit earlier, a Ju52/3M had crashed on a block of houses and as we passed that street I spent ample time on examining one of the engines, which was lying in the middle of the road. I was quite interested to see that it was made by BMW, I knew they made cars, but their range in aero-engines was new to me...
The smoke from the bombing of Rotterdam on May 14th, 30 miles away, could be seen from the roof of our house. In the week after the country capitulated, I saw several Ju52/3m machines that had crashed in the meadows around the city.

Next time the scene will change and I shall discuss aircraft recognition.
 
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Hi,

My uncle who flew (RAAF 1 Squadron - Hudsons) and died in WW2 was my influence from a young age when I wanted to know more about him. His old RAAF repair manual for Merlin, Hercules and Gypsy Major engines was given to me and I read it about 100 times and still do look through it.

At about 6 years of age at school one lunch we heard a plane flying very low. It did a few circles above the school at what seemed like only a few hundred feet. It was noisy and did not sound well. One engine stopped and the plane sort of wallowed in the air and then gradually sank down and flew off rather slowly. I found out some time later that it was a Grumman Tracker.

We lived a few miles from the airport and I remember seeing the DC6, DC4, DC3, Connies and Electras taking off and landing over our house.

I vividly remember a DH Heron coming in very low with #1 engine dead.

That got me more interested and I just started from there. If it's got pistons and props then I was interested and still am.

river
 

Why don't you start your own thread, it would be easier for people to focus on your recollections that way.
 
Hi!

I'm not sure of exactly what and when my interest in warplanes started. My country was neutral during WWII, so I did not have a relative introducing me to airplanes.

I remember being in primary school - about 7-8 years old -, drawing Spitfires and Hurricanes all the time. Looking everywhere for... Battling Briton's (the name was changed here, I think that's the original name) comics. I don't know what started first, but through the comics I found out about other airplanes - loved the Whirlwind twin-engine.

At the time, any chance of an aviation carreer went to the toilet, because I started having myopia, and it increased real fast - more than 5 dpt a year -, so that before I got to high school, I was blind as a bat without a radar (even the infantry would not take me, they took my glasses away, and told me to read the letters at the end of the corridor, and I could not see the corridor... 8) ). I never lost the interest, though, and when I was a teenager I found some Bill Gunston's book, which at the time I knew by heart, almost destroyed it because I almost slept with it.

Since that time, whenever I have a chance to know/read/see something related to warplanes, I do it.
Not much chance to fly, though. I *almost* had a little flight on a C-130 two weeks ago, but it was sent to Afghanistan a couple of days before! My wife got mad at me because she wanted to go to the beach, and I did 200 kms the other way to fly a plane that was not there...

Just to finish, a few years ago, someone told me there was some new surgery to cure myopia, and it worked. Too bad they don't accept over-the-hill aircraft loonies in the Air Force.

Do you think I could pull it off by claiming "age discrimination" to get in?
 
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