[naturalman1975]

Full headline Dying World War Two Spitfire engineer, 95, gets last wish granted to be reunited with iconic plane after bosses see him staring forlornly through fence from his wheelchair

[pepsi_junkie]

Pretty cool story. The airmen who gave hours of their time to give this man a few rare smiles in his hours of need are good people.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Reminds me of the story about Jack Nothrop when he was brought to the company in a wheelchair during his last days, to be told about the still secret B-2 bomber. With a small model of the plane shaking in his trembling hands, he expressed his joy that his life-long dream of an operational flying wing design had been realized. He said something like “Now I know why God has let me live this long.”

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Nice things do happen once in a great while.

[2banana]

An airplane mechanic is not an engineer.

He did become an engineer the war. But why exaggerate?

[dragnet2]

[dragnet2]

[Thud]

Thank you.

[Candor7]

Lovely article and I got to hear one of my favorite sounds in the whole world, a supercharged Merlin Rolls Royce V-12 engine spooling up.

[Gay State Conservative]

THE GREATEST GENERATION

[Gay State Conservative]

Note to naturalman:”The Greatest Generation” is a term/phrase/label made famous by one of our well known news anchors,Tom Browkaw, (”news readers” in other parts of the world) when referring to the WWII Generation.Most Freepers will appreciate just what it means.

[yarddog]

Maybe the most beautiful airplane ever crafted.

Of course there were lots of WWII planes which were almost as nice.

[Gay State Conservative]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Generation

[ameribbean expat]

Great post. Those guys had what it took. Hopefully we will too.

[PLMerite]

Any excuse:

[jumpingcholla34]

Great story. I read once that the Hurricane’s aluminum-and-fabric design enabled World War I veteran factory workers and mechanics to work on them without having to be retrained, freeing up other people to work on the all-metal Spits. In the Battle of Britain, the Hurricanes could take on the bombers while the Spits went after the Messerschmitts. Old England would have been lost without them.

[Peter W. Kessler]

“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Winston Churchill

[RayChuang88]

The Spitfire was a great plane, but its real potential wasn't realized until the Spitfire Mk. IX with its dual-stage supercharged Merlin engine. And it was spectacularly fast once the Rolls-Royce Griffon 65 became available in early 1944 on the Spitfire Mk. XIV model.

I'm glad that this dying World War II veteran was able to see the Spitfire fly again one more time.

[Chode]

may God bless...

Public Service Broadcasting - Spitfire Bird

[rmlew]

My allergies must be acting up. Something in my eye...

[Professional Engineer]

Very cool!