a/c were all around us there in England in the mid 60s.. when we went there in 1963 the AF had 22 active bases in England...plus there were RAF bases all over also...the sky was always full of the sound of jets...
we lived off base and the English kids didn't get out of school for a short summer vacation until the first of August.. we got out at the end of May... so there wasn't very many kids to play with in June and July... so parents use to actually drop we kids off at each others houses just so we had other kids to play with.. all we American kids living in the area...
there was about 5 of us, playing down at the park one day in 1965... it was on the Ouse River, and across from it was just farm fields...
we paid no attention to jets flying over, when this one did catch our attention tho.. it stopped in mid air and then descended down to the ground like a helicopter would... we're standing there with our mouths open and jaws on the ground...
it landed in the field across the river... the pilot got out, and walked around the plane checking stuff out.. we jumped up and down waving at him... he waved back several times....
climbs back into the AC and then it hovers in the air, goes vertically up slowly and then proceeded to take off like a regular plane when it got enough altitude...
of course we boys can't wait to get home and tell our dads what we had seen that day...
and of course no one believed us... I think I am still grounded by my old man for 'lying' and 'making up stories'.. another guy who use to hitch a ride into base with the old man, was told the same story by his kid... 'yeah, my kid came home and told me the same stupid story'....
unbeknowst to them... what we saw was the Hawker Harrier in its development stage before it entered service......
the other cool A/C that we saw all the time from the British RAF flying around were English Electric Lightnings and Avro Vulcans..
some Meteors and Hawker Hunters were still in service also at the time...
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
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