When did you first become interested in Warbirds?

[Dolpho]

I´m interested in warbirds, because my father was first working on Ju 88 in greece ( 43-44 ) and in April 45 at Lechfeld ( EJG 2 ) on Me 262. He was responsible for the weapons including bombs on both types. A cousin of my grandfather was the youngest weaponsgeneral of the Luftwaffe ( Eichenlaub mit Schwertern und Brillanten ). The last reason is, the pistonfighters are the last, the jetfighters ( Me 262 ) are the beginning of a new type of warbirds.

 

[model299]

When I was a young kid, I hung out in the Westport library in Kansas City, Mo. I stumbled across a book of WW2 aircraft, and was immediately smitten. I thought these were some of the most bueatiful, sensuous machines I'd ever seen. I've been hooked ever since.

 

[ccheese]

I grew up a stone's throw from Glenn L. Martin's Middle River aircraft plant,
in Maryland, in the 1940's. I use to ride my bike down to their plant and
watch airplanes all day long. I was there in 1944 when they were testing
Bf-109's and FW-190's against some of our aircraft. I also saw a PBM
coming in for a landing in Middle River and dig a wing into the water. The
plane cart-wheeled for two hundred yards. As a youngster my ambition
was to be a test pilot for Glen L. Martin.

Charles

 

[goat]

Our local airport was an Army Air Corps advanced training field in WW2. My nephew and I used to go exploring the woods around the airport when we were young, just a lot of old foundations and such. We liked to go dig the .50 caliber bullets out of the berm at the local police firing range which was where the gunsites on the fighters were bore-sighted. My Dad's cousin was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 with 3 confirmed kills and 2 probables. He told me about trying to track an Me262 with the ball turret, but it was too fast and the gunsight couldn't keep up! After I was married I found out my wife's dad was a tailgunner on a B-24 and flew on the Ploesti raid. I can't find much info on the wartime air field but, what I can find points to P-39's and P-51's being based here in WW2.

 

[Konigstiger205]

Well I always was interested in WW2 and one day while I was searching for pictures of WW2 planes I when found Warbird...my grandfather was an aircraft mechanic and that's pretty much everything...but the site is definitely the best I know and I know this sounds cheesy but I'm proud to be a member because there are a lot of great guys around here

 

[d_bader]

My Dad used to make kits when he was a lad, so thought I might be interested. We did our first joint one when I was 5 and I did my first solo one when I was about 8. Since then I ahve been amking them for the past 8 years.......

It was the kits that got me interested. I researched planes and got fascinated firstly about WW2 planes and then about WW2 in general. For a 16 year old, my room looks odd. I have about 10 posters of WW2 planes and many airfix on the ceiling. All my books are WW2 linked. I live WW2 everything, in particular planes and am lucky enough to have parents willing to go to museums even on holiday. I have been to Duxford twice and many others. Tangmere near Chichester is good. Not big at all but it is really friendly and feels very homely with people pffering to give you tours and make cups of tea etc.

 

[wingnuts]

I've been interested in aircraft since I was a kid in the 50s.... as most kids in the UK were then. I became an aircraft apprentice at Blackburns and then joined the RAF, I've been in the avaition industry, mainly military apart from a couple of years in general aviation and airlines. Done a lot on C130s... still doing it now for the RAAF. Also do ground handling for RAAF F/A18As and Hawks when the come to Melbourne for displays etc.

I also have my own graphics business, besides commercial stuff and I do t-shirt and hat designs for the RAAF Museum and other aviation organisations. my speciality is cartoons and caricatures.

 

[Instal]

My dad was a communications officer in the RAF and had a reciever in his radio room that was out of a Lancaster. He would let me play with the dials etc and when I was old enough to understand he told me about what he did in WW2. I think I was hooked soon after that. I drew planes and made models and grew more and more enamoured with the Spitfire in particular. We would go to the Airforce club of Windsor and when ever the discussion turned to the Spit the upwelling of emotion from these guys was overwhelming. That is probably what hooked me.

 

[Civettone]

Cool! Must have been great to have seen the Spitfire operational


Kris

 

[prang]

Sometime in the late sixties when I was very young 6, 7? my father would fly about the Washington state area from little airport to airport. On one flight we dropped into this field in the middle of nowhere with one heck of a good diner surrounded by little brightly colored planes. I had finished my burger and fries quickly because of all the smoke and noise and begged him to allow me to go out on the deck to enjoy the sunny day, promising I'd stay put and not climb on the planes.

While on the deck, playing dog fight with what I today think was a yellow plastic Vautour and blue FJ Fury, there was this odd pulsing, whooshing, sort of wine circling the field that I instantly realized was some new sort of plane I'd never heard before; not some turbine job, something else very odd. I strained my eyes scanning the area but it always seemed to be behind me when suddenly this sleek, dark green, odd but exquisitely shaped plane shot down the runway at very high speed.

I knew the plane was old, not being a jet and in somewhat of a state of disrepair but was still mesmerized by it as it circled again then landed. To my delight it veered off the runway approaching the diner's deck eventually parking just about even with my nose a few feet away. I can still remember the pilot was grinning ear to ear. Hell, I can even remember the smells of the diner, the avgas, grass, oil…
When he got out and gave me the ok to come near, I about leapt at the plane. I eventually begged him to let me sit in the cockpit but my dad came out and scolded me as I was climbing up the ladder. Later that day, on the way home, I saw that plane blast past us in the distance with Mt. Rainier as its back drop.

The plane was a P-38. It has a very distinctive sound if you've ever heard it. Ever since, I've had a passion for anything about war birds.

 

[ppopsie]

I don't know when and why I started to like the airplanes but I have been toying plastic model airplanes since I was just a small kid.

I kept on airplane modeling up to becoming nineteen when I started flying in gliders just by chance. A few years later I found mself flying a Cessna, to learn how to fly the airplanes at Chino airport, California where seeing and listening to the warbirds' noises were the just normal things. Since then I got be very good at doing things like landing a Piper Super Cub in 20kts crosswind!

Now I am back on the firm ground and fully enjoying everything about the aviation.

 

[DBII]

My father grew up by an AF base in the 40's. His uncle flew with the 13th AF in B25s. When I was young, he would take me to watch the commerical planes. Other familes went hunting or watched sports, we would chase warbirds. I was line up to fly Harriers for the Corps but dummy ended up being color blind. Red/Green was the only color I passed.

My father is almost 71 and every year we still make at lease 3 shows. We finaly made it to Dayton and then drove over to Thunder Over Michigan. It was a trip that we talked about doing for 30 years. It was the best time we ever had together.

DBII

 

[DBII]

Wingnut, I love the Zero.

DBII

 

[wingnuts]

Thank you DBII

 

[majorwoody10]

..me too wingnut great zeke ! ...i was mabey two or three years old rideing in a train somewhere through germany or western europe in the early 50s (i was a us army brat toddler) we passed a high dirt berm of what i now realize was the edge or end of an airfeild ,and pushed off the very steep end of the feild were 2 or 3 derelict prop fighter planes , spits or mabey typhoons ,sewage and slime camo and great british roundels , the angle was such that i was looking straight into the cockpits , the airstrip being high above the rr tracks and completely invisible ..this prolly sounds weird but even then i felt those roundels ment something to me though i was a baby in daipers
..when i was five ,i told a girl i was sweet on that " i was going to be a pilot " while we watched contrails high over fort sill oklahoma ..she was not impressed and told me she also was going to be a pilot ...i then assured her that girls could not be pilots .
....at age nine i witnessed a korean pilot stuff his t33 through the roof of a distant factory near taegu s.k. ..i asked my dad why he didnt jump out ,he told me korean pilots were not permitted to jump out of expensive american jets ..later that year i watched dawn patrol with errol flynn on afbc on our small black and white tv with my dad ,thats when i decided i was going to be a fighter pilot ,
...by 5th grade i was creastfallen to discover that the usaf did not accept candidates who were nearsighted and required rather thick lenses to see a classroom chalkboard .
...in my mid twenties i did manage become a hang glider then later a private pilot and proud half owner of a 76 piper warrior , this aquisition did help me to win the hand of my lovely wife who when seeing all those cockpit dials and gauges was convinced i was a genious as well as a wealthy dare devil aviator ...alas her opinion some 25 years later is that im not actually competant to operate anything more complicated than a wheelbarrow .
..and many hundreds of hours of flying ww2 combat flight sims online with thousands of white knuckle , butt scrunching virtual dogfights under my belt.... has convinced me that if i were real life a stick and rudder gunslinger of ww2 era fighters , i would have been one of those unfortunate newbies that was killed on his first or second combat mission ..a natural , i am not ...but i still love prop fighter planes ...

 

[wingnuts]

Glad you also liked the Zeke too Major ... always one been one of my favourites. Here's another.... most of the pilots who flew the RAF fighters in WW2 would have trained on one in one of these.... still plenty around, see them regularly flying over my place from RAAF Point Cook.. site of the RAAF Museum here in Melbourne.

DH82 Tigermoth

 

[majorwoody10]

man...i want a tiger moth from santa this year ..ive been extra good too...

 

[Messy1]

I have been interested in planes of all types since I was a little kid. I remember when we would drive my dad up to Fort Dodge, Iowa for summer camp in the Iowa National guard. I remember going back to pick him up, and he was usually getting off of a C130 I believe.
I also am sad to say that I really got interested in warplanes ever since I saw Top Gun and Iron Eagle when I was little. Wanted to be a fighter pilot, and a astronaut. Since then it has all been down hill!!!!!

 

[Pflueger]

Believe it or not my early interest was probably most piqued by me dear ol' mother. She was/continues to be big WW2 buff and had me and my 2 brothers very much into military history by the time we took our first steps. Mom is a big "Duke" (John Wayne) fan, so gotta admit to watching "The Flying Tigers" and the "Flying Leathernecks" over 100 times by the time I was 12. Despite her love of the Duke classics the lady does know her stuff.

Also mus admit to watching other old cornball standards like "Mosquito Squadron" (my personal favorite), "Twelve O-Clock High," "The Dam Busters," "Operation Crossbow," etc at every opportunity (still watch'um as a matter of fact). Anybody ever do a poll of best/worst WW2 films?

 

[Messy1]

I was a huge fan of the old war movies. I do like most of the John Wayne war movies! For me though it is hard to beat Saving Private Ryan, although I think Band Of Brothers is my all time favorite.
Another favorite of mine is Kelly's Heroes with Clint Eastwood. Still a war movie, but kind of a humorous one!
The title escapes me right now, but the one where John Way Played Spig Weed is another favorite of mine.