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As most of you loyal Musketeers know, Mrs. Bug and I travelled to England over Christmas '97. On our last day there I determined that it was time to dispense with the kind of cultural activity that involves paintings, plays, and antiquities. Yes, it was time for Bug to see some damned AIRPLANES! Mrs. Bug decided it was time for some SHOPPING. Whoo-hoo!
So for me it was off in The Tube to Hendon, just outside of London. It turned out to be a Holy Shrine of Airplane-dom. Airplane-ness. Warbird-stuff. Whatever. You get the idea.
One of the things that struck me was just how small many of our favorite fighters are. I had seen Spits and a Me-109 up close before, and knew that they were both quite small, but what really surprised me was the fact that the FW-190 was also an itty-bitty thing. I had always thought of it as a big bluff firepower machine like a Corsair. Not so.
A big difference between this museum and similair collections I've seen here in the States, is that -so- many of the aircraft have seen combat. In fact, most of the German planes were captured during the war.
I was standing in front of a diminutive yellow-nosed Me-109 in the Museum's Battle of Britain Hall, when I read the history of the craft. This particular craft was damaged in a fight over the Thames Estuary, and the pilot landed it at a nearby R.A.F. airfield. I thought "Here's a machine that has actually fired shots in anger..."
Standing there, looking at the little plane I suddenly imagined what the pilot must have felt as he tried to bring his injured bird down, fearing the British planes, fearing the field's ground fire, fearing structural failure and fire, hoping and praying for deliverance, and determined to bring it off. How he must have wanted to open that little hatch and climb out alive! It was a moment...
There are are a lot more wonderful aircraft there than I can even begin to name. But a few: a big Sunderland flying boat you can walk through, Hurricanes, V-1, V-2, Toronado, a monstrous Vulcan, and on and on and on. If you're ever in London, don't miss it.
In May of '98 I had one of the greatest thrills of my young life: a ride in the Collings Foundation's B-17! Every year they tour the country with this plane, and the last flying example of a B-24. For a tax-deductible (cough) "contribution" you can go for a short ride.