Just a fume to say how pathetic was the sound BBC coverage of last weekends flypast by several Spitfires. What I was waiting to hear was the sound of those wonderful Merlins. What I got was two motormouth presenters with who were terrified of any silence longer than 0.1 second.
The OB pictures were excellent though, great to see those aircraft flying.
Yes, it was fantastic to see them. I live in Bracknell and there used to be an RAF training college here. On passing out the BOB memorial flight would fly over the college and do aerobatics overhead. It certainly makes the hair on the neck tingle to watch a spitfire and hurricane loop the loop overhead and fly low over the trees. Usually I wouldn't know when it was going to happen. I'd be at home and I'd hear this strange engine sound and out we'd go to watch the fantastic show. Last thing would be a slow flypast with the lancaster dipping it's wings over the college. Perfect.
Incredibly some people used to complain about it..
Paul (Sadly the college is now closed, soon to be replaced by hundreds - if not thousands - of houses )
Never mind the BBC, try this:
Just out of Spitfire-related interest, years ago out the back of the government lab I used to work in there was a big tree-covered hill. During heavy winds (mid 1980's) some of the trees blew down revealing several Spitfire engine blocks. Apparently that's where most of them ended up.
My folks live right out in open countryside not so far from you.
One summers day we hear something interesting a coming - it was the BOB flight.
The large table cloth was rapidly grabbed from the dining table and waved enthusiatically in the garden. Next thing the Spit peels off and does a double beat up of the house and garden before disppearing into the distance waggling it's wings with glee.
Absolutely magical.
It's a man... in an aeroplane....
(...but I do share the sentiments!)
David
Ah excellent! Thanks :-)
I live just north of the Scottish Border. A couple of years ago, I was having lunch and thought I heard that unmistakable sound of a Merlin engine - once heard (and like so many folks now retired I heard my first a very long time ago) never forgotten. Surely not a Spitfire or Hurricane? I left my lunch and rushed outside, just in time to see a lone Spitfire cruise overhead at no more than 1000 ft, heading south. There had been an air show further north a day earlier, so it was presumably heading home.
One of my neighbours saw me looking up and asked what was the matter - I pointed to the Spitfire. He wasn't impressed - "What's all the excitement? Just some bloody aeroplane, isn't it?"
I went into full Victor Meldrew mode, with the wife trying to quieten me. The poor neighbour retreated down the street with my voice getting louder as he retreated - "Some bloody aeroplane? SOME BLOODY AEROPLANE???!! If it wasn't for that 'bloody aeroplane', matey - you'd be speaking German and eating with chopsticks!!!!!"
I think the poor man crossed the street on his way back home.
Just a few months later, a B17 flew over at low level, again heading south. A hugely impressive sight and sound. But apart from me, not a single person in the neighbourhood even raised their eyes. There's a monument in London that promises we'll never forget. Hell - most folks have forgotten already.
John
Not in the same league, but years ago as a young man living on the Mendip Hills in Somerset I used to watch the Brabazon flying overhead. To my young eyes it seemed as though it was going to fall out of the sky it seemed so slow.
That man is a Philistine!
Understandable!
You should have thrown bricks at him.
Planes that do the flypasts in London fly over my block. I have see countless Lancasters (probably the same one), Spitfires, Hurricanes, Vulcans (when that banks it is impressive), Tornadoes, etc. The Lancaster is a "big" plane. A South African friend was visiting the UK, I took him up to the roof so, he could see London from higher up, Coming towards us was a Lancaster, at about 100 feet higher than us, it passed within 500 yards and appears at the same level as us and banked away. He was mesmerised. First day in London he sees a Lancaster at close quarters in flight. He never stopped about it for days.
The Brabazon project did fall out of the sky.
A little while ago the equivalent of
Douglas de Lacey
The message from "Doctor Drivel" contains these words:
Not 'arf as much as Comets.
|The message |from "Doctor Drivel" contains these words: | |> The Brabazon project did fall out of the sky. | |Not 'arf as much as Comets.
The RAF took over the Comet airframes and flew them for years, and derivatives went on flying for even more years.
The message from Dave Fawthrop contains these words:
Without the corners on the windows, of course.
Living with an aeroplane obsessive and having an RAF son I'm steeped in it.
But, thankfully, only military 'planes. Civil 'planes ARE mostly 'so what?' -except seaplanes :-)
But there again, I swear that Victor Meldrew was modelled on the Fisher males. all of them.
Mary
So is Meldrew's Syndrome carried in the Fisher (male line) genes... or are we looking for some other common factor?
;-)
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