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Photographer John Dibbs captured stunning air-to-air photos of the last 55 flying Spitfire aircraft. I have one as my desktop background. LINK

Very cool, thanks for sharing

Great pictures.

Man this photo is totally badass. How cool and fun would it be to tear across the countryside like that? Love the way he's leaning into it. That pilot is one lucky bastage!

Such a graceful aircraft. Pure fighter!

Great shots - thanks!

Great pics. Thanks to the Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane gets no respect while it was the workhorse of the BOB.

Cool birds for sure. The warbird collector at the little airport I fly out of (KVBT) has a supermarine spitfire with the Griffon engine.

Very nice!

When I was a kid I wondered why everyone didn't have a WWII fighter plane. I figured there must have been a bunch left over after the war.

When I was flying in the Marine Corps the Dutch air force invited us up to Volkel air base in the Netherlands to fly with them for a week in 1996. We had a great time and they had a Spitfire at the base that the base commanding general was only allowed to fly. Unfortunately a couple of weeks before I was there he'd landed it gear up and skidded down the runway tearing off the skin on the bottom of the fuselage along with the radiators under the wing. There was an old mechanic who was in charge of it and he almost had it back in flying shape by the time we were there, you could tell it was his baby. I got to crawl all over it and sit in it, what a cool experience! I was amazed at how "primitive", for lack of a better word, it was. It was much smaller than I expected and the interior was very basic, just a needle/ball and a big compass card. The seat was just plywood and it just had a button for the gun's trigger. The old mechanic was standing there while I was sitting in it and I said "Jeez, how did you tell where you were in this thing?". He laughed and said "Well, if the coast is on the left when you go out you put it on the right when you come back!"

Good times

Without a doubt they are the prettiest plane ever flown.

Bit like the Fairbairn-Sykes in that there were and are better tools for the job, but none more pleasing to the eye.

Outstanding! Thanks for posting Rocky!!

Most enjoyable read with my first cup of coffee. Thanks

Thanks Rocky, those are easy on the eyes.

I had the honor of spending time with a Spitfire pilot who flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force, he spoke of flying in the Canadian "Diep" raid which was early on in his combat career.

He gave me pictures of himself standing next to his "Spit" along with a poster of RAF ace Johnny Johnson who was his wing commander at a retaken German airfield.

👍

For those with loads of expendable cash, there are always Spitfire rides out of Biggin Hill.

https://flyaspitfire.com/

One of these rides would be #1 on my bucket list.

Rocky, thanks for posting that!

My grandfather repaired Spitfires and Hurricanes during WW2, so they are special to me!


In WW1, he was also involved when the Germans used gas for the first time in 1915 in the trench warfare at Ypres.

The French troops broke in the face of this new terror weapon.

Even the highly-disciplined British troops broke, although they quickly got it together and did an orderly retreat.

The Canadians did NOT break.

My grandfather, like the other Canadians in his machine gun section of Canadian Expeditionary Force, pissed on his underwear and put it on his face to help him breathe and partially protect his eyes.

I'm proud of him although he died before I was born.

Anyway Rocky, thanks again for this and reminding me to think of my grandfather!

John

Cool plane.

Got a neighbor that has the newer version, 1947 vintage Seafire.
He's blown up the hood flying it around a time or two.

This is his flying over our place in Montana.