The last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster. From the exhilaration of the beauty, artistry and sheer genius of the Spitfire design to a comprehension of the sombre and dark days where it had to give account of itself. At stake was not only to save a nation, but indeed to protect the world from a menace which threatened to engulf all individual freedom.
This morning I was looking out over a cold gray Atlantic at the coast of France. I could not help but picture the Spitfire formations, so vividly engraved in my mind over the weekend, rising valiantly to meet the dark armada of evil. For evil it was. There were no gallant knights of the air here. This was a bitter fight for survival.
This feeling was reinforced by my visit to the Kent Battle of Britain Museum. There is no joy of flight here. No delight in engineering beauty. Artefacts, twisted and broken, cover the walls. Wrenched back out of the earth, cleaned and tagged with an obituary. It is a sad grave, honouring those individuals who fell from the sky and were embedded in the soil of Kent.
This sombre memory could be lost at great cost to humanity. Millions perished as a result of fascism. We may never allow its resurgence. The rise of populism is a harbinger of tragedy.
But enough of such dark thoughts…
My mood soon lifted when I arrived at Headcorn Airfield. The smell of freshly cut green grass permeated the air while light aircraft regularly took off and landed on this idyllic strip. Here I met the good folk at Aero Legends. Regrettably Ben Perkins, their MD, was not able to attend but his staff were quite engaged by the potential of the HFS Spitfire and Augmented Virtuality.
Then up to Biggin Hill’s Heritage Hangar where their General manager, Darren Dray, kindly agreed to meet with me. We had a great discussion and Darren showed me around their facilities. WOW!! He mentioned they had around 15 Spitfires in the shop in various stages of rebuild and overhaul. It was amazing! Best off all, there was an original (read not Buchon/Spanish/Merlin!) Me109 that they were working on. Incredible visit!
I then made my way down to Tangmere. I thought I would have a quick half hour to look around by the time I arrived at 16H30 (closing is at 17H00) but the crew there were just shutting up shop and indicated that 16H00 was last visitors through the gate. No amount of pleading nor the fact that I had come all the way from South Africa could change this. Ah well, you win some, you loose some… 🙂
Tonight I stay over in Southampton, home of Supermarine and birthplace of the Spitfire. Tomorrow morning I go visit the Solent Sky museum here in the city and then make my way up North.
