Cabbage crate over the Briney.

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There we were, quietly walking our dogs across the Golf Course this morning, when we beheld a wondrous sound. The deep, distinctive grumble of a Rolls Royce merlin engine in the distance! It couldnt be.....we havent seen one in ages!!
The sound got louder and seemed to be coming from behind the trees in the distance, AND THEN WE SAW IT..........A BLOODY SPITFIRE !! MARVELLOUS !

It emerged over the top of the trees, about half a mile away, and turned to make a parallel line with the fairway....OUR FAIRWAY.

Four grown men suddenly became boys again and started waving as it approached. Then we all stood in silent awe as it roared straight over us.
About five seconds after his "fly past" he suddenly wiggled his wings in what we would like to think was an acknowledgement of our waves, and throttled into a steep climb. It was all over in about twenty seconds, but it made my day.

It must have been exciting (and bloody terrifying) for those young men to have raced around in those things during the war. Many spitfire pilots still count those days as the best of their lives. It must be a "man thing", 'cos I would've loved to have had a go.

We used to see at least four or five Spits a week round here, as the Rolls Royce engineering centre (it was an aerodrome really) is/was only about a mile away, and the pilots used to bring them in for servicing. Alas, the Rolls bit has closed now, and the whole Aerodrome has now been taken over by the film industry (that's where they do most of the Harry Potter filming, and a lot of James Bond stuff.....Private Ryan had a lot of scenes there....lots of bangs and thumps going on all of the time...marvellous).

So come on lads....put "land of hope and glory" on full blast, don your goggles and run round the house with your arms outstretched screaming "VAAAAAARRRRRRROOOOOOOOOM", as you take the old cabbage crate over the briney, have a scrap with a couple of fockers and get back in time for lunch.
It may not please the wife or neighbours, but it's very good aerobic exercise.

http://k.domaindlx.com/lordellpus/spit.jpg

http://k.domaindlx.com/lordellpus/spitfire.jpg

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They look like toys. We have a similar type plane here in the US, except we refer to them as "orange crates".

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Actually, when the Merlin engine was installed in the North American P51 Mustang, it achieved the apotheosis of piston-engine aircraft . . .

http://www.azcolt.com/images/open0820.jpg

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I borrowed the photos from Google, as I had left my little camera at home (and I nearly always have it with me...darn!) .

They're real planes...you can make out the pilot quite clearly in one.

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The P51 was about the best fighter during WW2, but you've got to admit that the Spit is just about the best looking little plane that was ever made.
The "Kylie Minogue" of Fighters really.

That P51 has stretched the page.....everything IS big in America.

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These were both excellent and popular airplanes. The Spitfire gained fame early in the war while the Spitfire came into it's own later in the war.

It is interesting that the Mustang story began in 1940 when the British contacted North American Aviation with a request to build fighters for the RAF.
North American was willing, and they offered to design and build a new fighter that would meet British requirements, and be easy to mass produce. The rolled the first Mustang out in 100 days and by 1944/45 they had the famous Merlin engine that clocked something like 445 mph.

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I saw Chuck Yaeger interviewed on television once (he was a P-51 ace before he became famous as a test pilot), and he stated that: "What the Spitfire could do for forty minutes, the Mustang could do for eight hours." In his war memoir, The First and the Last, Adolf Galland, who was the Luftwaffe fighter chief, recounted the nightmare of the Mustangs, who still had hours of time in the air after they had finished their bomber escort duties, and who would follow them (the Germans) back to their airbases. By the end of the war, the German fighters were hiding in the woods, and taking off from logging roads--airfields were no longer safe.

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Reminds me of the Swedish WWII fighter pilot that was being interviewed on television many years after the war. When asked about his most harrowing experience as a fighter pilot, he said "Well, I was flying along and up on my right there was two fokkers and up on my left there was two fokkers."

The startled announcer grabbed the microphone and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, for those who are not aware of it, a Fokker is a WW1 aircraft."

The Swede grabbed the microphone back and said. "Ya, but these Fokkers was Messerschmidtts!.

:-D

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Anyone who is stirred by the sight of these old planes should read "First Light" by Geoffrey Wellum. It just about sums up what it was like. At times, you feel as if you are in the Spit with him.

An excellent read.

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The novels of Antoine de Saint Exupéry are interesting for the same reason. I have not read them in English, but i believe they should be available from a good library:

Vol de nuit, or Night Flight

Courier du sud, or Southern Mail

and Le Vent, le sable et les étoiles, or The Wind, Sand and Stars

Saint Exupéry was a pilot in the 1920's, at a time when French aviators were carrying mail to the isolated mining outposts of French companies in Africa and South America. I have always found this stuff almost as fascinating as the subject of sailing vessels.

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