Spitfire and a Mustang ;-)
Spitfire and a Mustang ;-)
As i´m a big fan of the Spitfire and other warbirds i´m a little bit privileged with my local airport EDTG. Here a few impressions from the last weekend, enjoy. :rapture:
Supermarine Spitfire HF Mk VIIIc, D-FEUR, owned by MaxAlpha Aviation, Meiermotors :
Freely translated and quoted from MeierMotors:
“Historical Outline of the Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII
This Spitfire was built in the "Supermarine Southampton's Factory" in 1944. The aircraft was delivered in September 1944 to the Royal Air Force and assigned with the tactical identification of MV154 at the 6MU. This "ferry flight" from Southampton to Brise Norton was carried out by a 19 year old lady named Mary Wilkens, a so called ATA girl "Air Transport Auxillary pilots”. This young lady had ratings for 72 different types of aircraft. ATA girls accomplished almost superhuman flights with the transfer of aircrafts to airbases. They flew unarmed, with bad maps and were not yet accepted as proper pilots. About these women there is a wonderful television documentary. To get the curve back, said Mary Wilkens left her personal signature at the right hand side in the cockpit in 1993! A wonderful time capsule of a remarkable woman. It's the small details which make a unique aircraft.”
Something more about the history. This plane can be seen in the movie “Pearl Harbour” with the signature “RF T” in brown/green camouflage in flight over the english airfield. :whoo:
Of course there is more to come. How about a Mustang P-51 called "Lucky Lady VII"?
Freely translated and quoted from MeierMotors:
The “Lucky Lady VII” (Ser.Nr. 44-73045) was flown during WW II by Col. Ernest E.Bankey jr. over Europe . He flew over 100 sorties with over 500 flying hours. If you follow the official reports he had 10,5 air to air victories ( plus another one not officially documented ) and destroyed another 5,5 aircraft on the ground. From all of his air to air victories 5,5 happened alone at the 27th of December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. For this he was rewarded with the “Distinguished Service Cross”, so actually he was one of the “Ace in a day”. He also received the “Silver Star”, „Distinguished Flying Cross with Clusters“, „Air Medal with 9 Oak Leaf Clusters“ and the „French Croix De Guerre with Palm“.
He left the US Air Force in 1968 and worked later on in the private airplane and space industry. Sadly he died in 2009 before the complete restoration of his plane was finished. But the current owner is in contact with his son and hopes for some kind of a reunion.
It is said that he once aired a radio message which got quite famous: “I have 50 Jerries cornered over Bonn!”
These have been my lousy shots. If you want to watch a few more just go to
http://www.meiermotors.com/
On the menu at the left hand side just click onto “aircrafts”, choose your toy and enjoy the show. Literally hundreds of photos. This weekend the weather is lousy and we may even get a little bit of snow. But within the next few weeks I will try to get a few photos when these birds are in the sky.
Have fun, bg ;-D