Most of us got into aviation or started to build model aeroplanes with via some lasting imprint on our minds of a single event or happening,I have often wondered about this and can say that mine took on aviation in the blood at a very tender age,there are a few landmarks that even now I can remember with vivid detail,one thing is for sure aeroplanes looked so interestingly different in those days,and above all identification was so much easier,anyway just try and imagine this scene-
I was standing in a small back yard where I then lived in the Aldermans Green area of Coventry,there was a large water butt which collected the soft water leading from some guttering,in it tail up was a small rubber powered model aeroplane that my father had given me ! the model had done a circuit and decided it wanted to be a seaplane,as I climbed up onto some bricks to retrieve it and dry it out I heard a loud noise overhead,imagine the situation tall walls and houses but overhead rumbled dozens and dozens of four engined aircraft in loose formation flashing by at low level with that menacing brickwork getting in the way,I just froze with the joy of seeing such an impressive sight,a single Mosquito would have been normal but to see such an impressive sight as this ! what were they,well many years later I got to the bottom of that formation,they were virtually the entire bomber force of Avro Lincoln aircraft making a post war tour across Britain,that scene and the noise it made will never ever leave me especially for the lasting impressions it made on me.
I was also lucky enough to remember the Armstrong Whitworth AW.52 Flying wing in flight,it looked so graceful in flight,when the ATC cadets got to do their annual summer camp at R.A.F Honily a fleet of Avro 19 aircraft came up to fly them all over the area,there were Ansons everywhere.I wonder how many of them became pilots or enthusiasts later on due to that encouragement ? if there are any more stories out there about what got you interested in aviation or modelling then lets here about it here ?
I was standing in a small back yard where I then lived in the Aldermans Green area of Coventry,there was a large water butt which collected the soft water leading from some guttering,in it tail up was a small rubber powered model aeroplane that my father had given me ! the model had done a circuit and decided it wanted to be a seaplane,as I climbed up onto some bricks to retrieve it and dry it out I heard a loud noise overhead,imagine the situation tall walls and houses but overhead rumbled dozens and dozens of four engined aircraft in loose formation flashing by at low level with that menacing brickwork getting in the way,I just froze with the joy of seeing such an impressive sight,a single Mosquito would have been normal but to see such an impressive sight as this ! what were they,well many years later I got to the bottom of that formation,they were virtually the entire bomber force of Avro Lincoln aircraft making a post war tour across Britain,that scene and the noise it made will never ever leave me especially for the lasting impressions it made on me.
I was also lucky enough to remember the Armstrong Whitworth AW.52 Flying wing in flight,it looked so graceful in flight,when the ATC cadets got to do their annual summer camp at R.A.F Honily a fleet of Avro 19 aircraft came up to fly them all over the area,there were Ansons everywhere.I wonder how many of them became pilots or enthusiasts later on due to that encouragement ? if there are any more stories out there about what got you interested in aviation or modelling then lets here about it here ?
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