Great post, B-17 Buff! There IS hope 😀

Advice? Find a project as local as you can get (don’t worry about it being ‘glamorous’, it all looks the same when you’re covered in old oil and freezing your bits off in a big shed), and sign up for the NAHSI scheme if you can.

Thanks Matt… thats the problem, I cant find any locally!!:eek:

Hi Guys,

I’ve been reading this thread with great interest. I’m 27 and have had a love of aviation all my life and have had a passion for historic aviation since I was 10 years old. I live and breathe warbirds and read flypast and WIX everyday although I don’t often post unless I have something relevent to say. I have spent many a day daydreaming in front of a warbird or on an old airfield for which I have visited many. One of my highlights was making personal contact with Bob Morgan the pilot of the real Memphis Belle when I was in my teens who arranged for me to visit the aircraft when she was in Memphis in the late 90’s. I used to help out at my local D-Day museum also when I was in my teens in the 90’s at Shoreham Airport long before it closed and spent many an hour listening to veterans tell ‘their’ story. I subsequently trained as a licensed aircraft engineer before going on to university to study aircraft engineering in which I worked for a couple of years before I was able to fund my real passion and train as a commercial pilot. I completed this training in the summer.

It is true there are very few people of my age that seem to be interested in historic aviation although I do know one or two. There is a slight stigma that it is a grandad ‘hobby’ for which I sometimes get stick from my friends! Sometimes I feel as a ‘younger’ member of the fraternity that it is hard to get taken ‘seriously’ when discussing historic aircraft or talking to individuals. I would love to get involved in restorations should there of been a museum closer to me that needed volunteers (I wish I was based closer to Duxford!). Moreover I would love to get involved in flying historic aircraft but unfortunately i do not know anyone as a ‘way in’.

For me, getting involved actively in historic aviation from a ‘hands-on’ point of view feels very difficult as organisations are few and far between and there is a feel that it is mainly for those who are of the older generation, who have money or whose family are involved already in historic aircraft.

Just my 2 cents as they say…

I am one of those of which you speak, I would love to hear any advice or leads that may help at least one member of the younger generation get actively involved in what he feels so passionately for!

Rlangham, Pure lightening and Daz daz man, that makes four of us! 🙂 This film literally changed my life and everything I have done since, after watching it as a 10 year old in 1993… It may bit a bit corny in places and not quite historically accurate but its introduced many a new generation to the trials and tribulations that the ‘greatest generation’ endured. For that, its earned its place in the story it represents…

Thanks for the pics trumper, its great to actually see the evidence. 😀 Well done to Elly, Peter, Andrew and all the team for the hard work and many hours spent to get her back where she belongs… long may she continue up there. 🙂

This is great news.. I’ve been hoping something like this would come about for some time:) …an actual reconstructed period airfield! Now all we need is a BOB airfield (Kenley?), a Bomber command airfield (East Kirkby?) and an 8th AF airfield (bassingbourn?) reconstructed…:D

I’m campaigning for Bassingbourn (tower already grade 2 listed) to be preserved (unhappy they’ve gone and erected buildings in the middle of the grass apron of such a well preserved and possibly the most historic of all the 8th’s bases 😡 – think Clark Gable, Bob Hope, Memphis Belle – William Wyler etc!!)

I just don’t know who to campaign too! :confused:

Here is an unusual and rare bird….resting on Svalbard. Crew survived and had a bit of a walk home……

Seems almost like its worth recovering.

Definately worth recovering! 🙁

Wow, great photos Mark12. Thats quite a goody bag hanger full of german aircraft!:D I do hope they are all still in museums somewhere?:(

Anyone shed any light on their whereabouts now?