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Warbird Obsession
It's an addiction. Admitting you have it is the first step.
By Rebecca Maksel
airspacemag.com, December 03, 2008
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“Warbird intoxication is a widespread ailment, even if most of the afflicted get no closer than photographs or static aircraft displays and flybys at airshows,” according to author John Fleischman. One of the most deeply afflicted is photographer John M. Dibbs, who for more than a decade has shot air-to-air photographs of World War II-vintage aircraft for his “Flying Legends” calendars. In 2006 he gathered some of his favorite images in The High Battleground: Air to Air with World War II’s Greatest Combat Aircraft, with text by aviation writer James Busha. Click on the thumbnail images at right to see more photographs from this remarkable book.
"There are few more dangerous afflictions than Spitfire fever," says Fleischman. The single-seat fighter aircraft, with its distinctive elliptical wing, was the only British fighter to remain in production throughout World War II; during its nine-year run, more than 22,500 Spitfires were manufactured.
“Our dive-bombing technique in the Spitfire was pretty standard and very quick,” Squadron Leader Charles Edmondson told Busha. “You dive, you bomb, you pull out and then you black out. When you awoke a few seconds later, you got the hell out of there!”
The Spitfire pictured is part of the Shuttleworth Collection, based in Old Warden, U.K.
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Nice photo and info about the P38. My Mother's youngest brother was a photographer in the US Army, stationed in Australia during WWII. He was killed along with the other crew while on a recon mission over New Guinea in a P38 in late 1942. The wreckage was not found until 1961 and the remains, identified by dog-tags, are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Posted by R. C. Rogers on December 22,2008 | 11:44AM