As a little extra treat, being a few miles from Biggin Hill, we get a Spitfire flypast a few times every day, and that is something I would never get bored of…
The girls are starting to learn what a Merlin sounds like now, which is obviously a valuable life skill…
I’ve still got one of @BobC 's original headphone stands (despite not having any headphone outputs on my kit), which is made with a genuine Merlin engine valve.
'Tis a thing of beauty and historical interest and importance.
Last week in Sussex we were seeing a Spitfire every day & a Mustang most days. Seems there’s a company offering flights out of Goodwood. What looked like a Corsair also flew over on one of the days.
I remember being near the top of Snowdon, on some Air Cadet outing, hearing multiple Merlins approaching, and below us in the valley came a Spitfire, Hurricane and Mosquito, I think from the BBMF, roaring through. What a fantastic sight. Would be brilliant to see one flying again.
When I’m down in Sussex I occasionally visit Tangmere (nr Chichester). My Dad briefly flew Vampires out of there. They have a good display including a Lightning (& a Lightning simulator you can crash at your leisure!) plenty of history there too about air speed record setting that used to take place just offshore along the South coast there.
I think the key point re the Wright brothers was ‘controlled’ flight. I visited Kitty Hawk a few years ago which was fascinating. They had their flight distances marked out. But what I hadn’t appreciated was how much work they’d done earlier perfecting their control of gliders. There was a funny anecdote concerning European aviators who were dubious regarding the Wright’s achievements and it took until they visited Europe with a plane to convince the sceptics. Or more accurately when one of them took off & flew it in a figure of eight.