Went on holidays and all I got was this plastic wrapped Spitfire!

[Baron Kurtz]

Great picture! And who said nobody had beards in the Golden era!

Well, old George (V, VI, i forget ... 24 hours at work makes me sleepy) had a beard. Helped with his manly resistance to the Germans. Tony, yer Da does seem to have the old kingly 'tache going on there.

Every photo of your father from this era is great (he was an RAF mechanic, right?).

bk

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Not quite, he was a design engineer at Supermarine. The airplane in the background is a Spitfire Mk VI, a high altitude photographic reconnaissance version. He was in charge of converting the airplane to a pressurized cabin for the higher altitude. It became the first operational military pressurized aircraft in the world.

He started his engineering career as a draughtsman in the era of fabric covered flying boats, and ended up doing design work on spacecraft.

I just wish some of that geinus had rubbed off on me, or some of his drive. You see, he did all this after completely losing his hearing after a motorcycle accident at age 19.