When did you first become interested in Warbirds?

[woljags]

my interest came from holidays in westgate on sea in kent in the 60's/very early 70's,the beach was in the flight path of RAF Manston,i would see every day Vulcan's/Varsity's/Valletta's and Whirlwind helicopters flying into land,also just up the road was the frog factory where the kits were made,as my family loved playing bingo in the evening we kids would get bored hanging around so we would look at the prizes,as the frog factory was just up the road there were aircraft kits available as prizes so i got my 1st kit playing bingo,by the time i left that year i had spent nearly a years saved pocket money picking up these kit however i could.Lots of trips every year after that to RAF Manston where they had 3 gate guardians [spitfire/canberra/javelin] ,i didn't stop making/collecting models until i started work in the late 70's ,in the late 80's i became ground crew for a couple of seasons at North Weald and West Malling airfields on vintage warbird displays until health and safety got in the way,although i have kept up my interest in aircraft it wasn't until a couple of years ago that i started modeling again and couldn't believe just how much it had changed,the detailing done now makes my attempts look scrap,so i look on now trying to do better each time and although i have lots of rare kits to build [100 approx] i hope that at the end i will turn out something on the par with some of the chaps on here

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool gents!

 

[destrozas]

I started very young I was 2 years old when my hometown (Alcala de Henares) Spanish paratroopers have their main base there and to displays for the holidays, plus a guy in the Spanish SAR, later when I was 4 years my grandfather was honored by a government establishment for being the senior Republican last fall prey to the Spanish civil war from that day my grandfather began to tell their stories of war, with 8 years my uncle gave me my first Spitfire Mk Ia model an Airfix I think, since then I've been making models 17 years I volunteered at the Spanish Air army, instruction estubo 9 months but I detected a heart condition that limited me to keep my job and I graduated from sick leave will be free until the mandatory military service by the then still being made, the models by life circumstances I could not have a record in the hobby,
From the first show of chinooks on my terrace mayor dreamed of flying in a helicopter and fly as high performance that has hurt the military that could not be in my heart.

 

[jipi]

Hi !
As far as I remember, I have always been interested in fast, noisy jet fighters.

I have started getting interested in WW2 fighters when, in the Frazé's cemetary, in the deep french countryside, I found the stele of a young french pilot, Arnould Thiroux de Gervillier, saying "Killed in aerial fight on may 21st 1940".

 

[Marcodc3]

I was always a big time lover or both military and civil aircrafts, especially those build in the 1930s and 1940s.

 

[Readie]

my interest came from holidays in westgate on sea in kent in the 60's/very early 70's,the beach was in the flight path of RAF Manston,i would see every day Vulcan's/Varsity's/Valletta's and Whirlwind helicopters flying into land,also just up the road was the frog factory where the kits were made,as my family loved playing bingo in the evening we kids would get bored hanging around so we would look at the prizes,as the frog factory was just up the road there were aircraft kits available as prizes so i got my 1st kit playing bingo,by the time i left that year i had spent nearly a years saved pocket money picking up these kit however i could.Lots of trips every year after that to RAF Manston where they had 3 gate guardians [spitfire/canberra/javelin] ,i didn't stop making/collecting models until i started work in the late 70's ,in the late 80's i became ground crew for a couple of seasons at North Weald and West Malling airfields on vintage warbird displays until health and safety got in the way,although i have kept up my interest in aircraft it wasn't until a couple of years ago that i started modeling again and couldn't believe just how much it had changed,the detailing done now makes my attempts look scrap,so i look on now trying to do better each time and although i have lots of rare kits to build [100 approx] i hope that at the end i will turn out something on the par with some of the chaps on here

A coincidence there. My family come from Ramsgate Margate. My Mum served at RAF Manston in WW2. Been to West Malling too.
Manston hosts the 'Spirit of Kent' Spitfire display every year.
Cheers
John

 

[Elmas]

I'don't know.......
I did receive the first book on Aviation as birthday present September 19th, 1960, at the age of eight.....
I still own this book, of course.......

 

[oldcrowcv63]

The first book my mother read to me as a child (before I learned to read) was the Story of the Wright Brothers. My brother was an artist and an early pilot in his teens due to his summer employment at a small New Jersey country airfield: Lander's Flying Service near Blairstown in Warren County, NJ. At this airfield were the abandoned wrecks of yellow painted WW2 training aircraft that I could climb around and play in. Seeing my brother's sketches, and recalling the stories my mother had read and told me (inspired from her own experiences in befriending aviation pioneers) I was hooked on the romance of the sky. That's never changed. I knew when young that aviation would be a major part of my life and it has been so.

 

[Charlie]

My Dad flew B-29's in the 20th AAF 313 wing 505th group 484th squad from Tinian North field which at the time was the worlds largest.......
So as far back as I can remember there was a balsa model of his plane "Lil Spook" #84-06 sitting on his Dresser in Mom and Dads bedroom that he built from scratch and he has an album of photos which I've posted a few here so it was natural I became a Warbird "nut"......

P.S. Guess which plane got my vote for the Top Heavy Bomber hahahahaha...
It was an obvious choice anyway........

Hollywood,

My dad Charles W. Johnson was the pilot of Lil Spook