Spitfire 75 years old

[DarrenL]

Surviving bit of K5054 - http://www.k5054.com/#surviving

[DaveB]

Thanks for posting those Richard. Was it as cold as it looked??

ATB
DaveB

[fighterpilot]

Yes, yes it was! Well worth it though. What a sound when that Merlin fired up

Richard

[VC10]

I'm getting old! I remember going to a day long Spitfire Symposium at Southampton University to celebrate the 40th anniversary.

It was an excellent day with lectures from Jeffery Quill, Douglas Bader, Bob Stanford-Tuck, Capt Balwin,who flew the Seafire, and a woman ferry pilot. After lunch there was a flying display at Hamble with two or three Spitfires plus a half scale one. Bader & Stanford Tuck were particularly good with a bit of banter between the two of them about who was the better fighter pilot. I got the souvenir booklet signed by the two of them

[Hot_Charlie]

Seems though, the lead is Caroline Grace as if there was not a little more to the story than that

Sadly the BBC are still backward enough to think that a woman flying a Spitfire is quite a novelty.

[Chris558]

She's a tribute to the many women who flew them in the war.

Did anyone see the programme, 'Spitfire Women' a while ago? From what I recall those women had no nav training, just basically sent off with a map, and on a foggy day barely knew where they were or getting lost altogether...unbelievable.

Here's to the next 75 years. I hope they had a nice Birthday cake aswell!

[DarrenL]

She's a tribute to the many women who flew them in the war.

Did anyone see the programme, 'Spitfire Women' a while ago? From what I recall those women had no nav training, just basically sent off with a map, and on a foggy day barely knew where they were or getting lost altogether...unbelievable.

I saw that, one lady flew in heavy fog to deliver a Spitfire only to find all the pilots at the fog covered airfield were grounded