I remember as a kid that aviation and airplanes were magic.
A well written and thoughtful post. Living close to a major airport, all I ever see now are streams of Boeings and Airbus going down the ILS on autopilot and the occasional Dash Eight and a Saab 340 or two. Boring, quite frankly. I loved those halycon days when you saw Connies, DC4, DC6, Argosies, Convairs, DC8's, Britannias, DC3's, Friendships, C130's, Electras and the occasional Globemasters.
And in Darwin we saw a feast of different types passing through. A B17 Flying Fortress, more USAF Globemasters, F84 Thunderjets, Boeing 707's, Hastings, Tudors, and a weird French double tail double decker Bregeut. A spotters paradise. Not forgetting of course Lincolns coming in on three engines which was SOP. Mustangs and Vampires, Sabres on exercises, Neptunes - the station Wirraway even (until I pranged it) And the local Darwin aeroclub had Tiger Moths, and a Hornet Moth (I pranged that a little bit, too)
No wonder there were so many aviation enthusiasts then. Not too many now.