megan (#6),
Only just come across your Post (took one lookat this Thread and found the whole idea distasteful in the extreme) What are they going to do - throw it open to the public like a TV competition, and vote for a winner ?
I must disqualify myself on tthe grounds (a) I did not touch a Spitfire until two years after the Battle, (b) because I never flew one operationally, and (c) I never flew a V - I; II; IX (in dispute); XIV, XVI; XXII.
All who fought in the War are now "heroes". I never tire of pointing out that we were just ordinary blokes who happened to be there when the balloon went up: we had to deal with it as there was nobody else around and we would have been less than men if we didn't. That's all.
Having said that, I take my hat off to them: our Army was beaten to the wall, the Navy was not yet winning the Battle of the Atlantic, only the R.A.F. stood in Hitler's way. It was enough.
The Spitfire was the sweetest thing that ever flew, and I am eternally grateful that it fell to my lot to get to fly one.
Danny,