Damn..missed it.! No TV on a ship heading for the UK.
Top pilot from my early days was Fred Hoinville (Fred, who? these days )
He use to do skywriting at FLs in a Tiger Moth, stopwatch and rated turns...amazing. All in an open cockpit and bloody freezing half to death. Magic.
He sure could aerobat that Tiger of his.... "Brolga".
Hats off to ALL those ballsy Test Pilots around the world, like Armstrong and Co in his earlier days, stepping into things like the X 15 that might just go "KaBoom!" instead of rocketing off into stratosphere.
His giant step and the photograph of his boot print in the moon dust is a defining shot of the 20th century. It will still be there long after we're all gone.
Hurry up folks...I want to still be around to see the footprints on Mars.
To all those aviators with folded wings, Fred, Neil, and everyone else, past and recent. RIP