How did you become addicted to WW2 aircraft ?

[ITAF_Rani]

To me all started when I was 13.

Discovered this kit in dusty old shop close my house, and my mind has been stolen in a second.

Remember a long trip by train moving to a new town with my family, watching this box for hours..

 

Edited October 10, 2018 by ITAF_Rani

[blockheadgreen_]

For me, it was the Spitfire at the old Glasgow Museum of Transport back in the early 2000s when i was three years old. It now resides in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery across the road, and it’s a stunner.

 

[Gambit21]

Probably started watching Black Sheep Squadron with my dad when I was 7-8 years old.

(if you have fond memories of that show, don't try watching it now...trust me)

 

Then movies like Midway, Tora Tora Tora...then building models when a bit older.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Il-2 Sturmovik on a few CDs, some time in the early 2000s. I know it's only a game, but it was truly magical at my age. 

[Gambit21]

You missed out if you didn't fly European Air War.

So many things in that sim that no product since has been able to touch.

 

Oleg's IL2 came along and had a superior flight model, graphics and ballistics...but fell short in the immersion category - just no comparison.

There still is no comparison frankly, just a different vision. Briefings, the big map of Europe on the wall, the CO's voice telling you what your target is,  musics, the user interface....

I know Jason would love for this product to have some of those touches, but BoS just started off so far behind because of Loft's ass backwards priorities...hard to undo it all even now.

[Trooper117]

As a young lad in the 60's, talking to RAF veterans, plus of course the release of the film Battle of Britain, and visiting RAF airfields on day trips.

[Diggun]

Growing up close to Duxford, I can remember seeing filming for Memphis Belle taking place over my folks garden as a kid. When I was very small my dad used to read me Biggles as a bedtime story - though I think that this was more because he wanted an excuse to read them to himself...Used to love going to the East Anglian USAF airshows too - Mildenhall, Lakenheath, (man, the late 80's was the best time for a weird and wonderful variety of aircraft. I remember seeing the SR71 doing passes one year!) and getting addicted to american style hot dogs - and the smell of oil drum bbq with the cry of 'beers! burgers!...

 

Despite all the heavy metal and loud noises on display though, I've always preferred the WW2 birds though. It was only when legacy IL2 hit and I found myself with an inordinate amount of free time (ah, undergraduate life. How I miss you) that I started to get properly obsessive about it.

[Finkeren]

I was 8 when my dad bought me an Airfix kit of a “Speedfire” (as he insisted on calling it) after we’d been to a museum that has one. I was pretty much sold on WW2 aircraft specifically from the start - they just have that intrinsic beauty to them that I don’t find in any other machine.

 

Once my family bought our first PC in 1992 and I started out with SWOTL, Their Finest Hour and Red Baron, the sims made sure to keep my interest focused on old combat aircraft.

[kestrel79]

Growing up an hour from EAA Oshkosh helped a little  Then it was history class, books, movies, model airplanes, and of course video games and flight sims after that. 

[AndyJWest]

I'm not  'addicted', though junkies usually say that.   

 

Seriously though, I must have become aware of WW2 aircraft at a very early age, since I can remember doing Spitfire impressions in my primary-school playground. From there it went on to Airfix kits by the dozen. And waiting with much anticipation for the Battle of Britain film. And looking at the Spitfire hanging up in the Science Museum. And buying books on WW2 aircraft (which I wish I'd kept, probably worth a bit now). And then I got a job in the drawing office at Airfix, and had a chance to do a bit of kit design myself, for a few years.

 

For a time, my interest in the topic faded somewhat, since other things seemed more important, but the possibility of virtually flying aircraft on a computer revived it, and after a short interlude of frustration with CFS3 I came across IL-2:Forgotten Battles, which broadened my outlook on the subject quite a bit.

[MiloMorai]

Father and an uncle were in the RCAF during WW2. Grew up in a house that had Mustangs, Mosquitoes, Lancasters then Sabres and CF-100s and other military a/c from CFB Uplands as well as commercial a/c flying over.  Airplanes were in my blood from an early age. Played with an aluminum Mosquito Dad had made (~6" ws, brother has it now). Got a c/l model for Christmas one year. Acquired many books on aviation. Got interest in other things like motorcycles, racing boats and females. Then EAW came out. Was hooked. Prefer off line over the online furballs unless they are structured like co-op. Enjoy the learning from the factual forum discussions on a/c. Don't get enthused about the eye candy/rivet counting on a/c.

[[N.O.G.F]_Cathal_Brugha]

Building stick and tissue kit airplanes, first was a Comet kit, ME109E. After that I built every stick and tissue kit I could get my hands on, and designed my own plans for planes I wanted to build that there was no kit for. All of them were rubber band powered flying models that were flown all year round, even in the snow. I also did some gas powered control line planes.

 

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