We visited the Royal Air Force Museum in Colindale, London (RAF Hendon), a place I really like because it’s so full of historic old fighter planes, and also really close to where my mum lives, where I grew up. And yet a place I don’t go to often, even as a kid. It was always just there, over by Grahame Park. I am glad in a way though because every time I do go back, it always surprises me. Last time I was there was about five years ago when Urban Sketchers London had a sketchcrawl there, and I brought my nephew along. I love drawing the old World War Two planes. My family and I wandered through here, and I drew a couple of planes in pencil, the Hawker Typhoon (above), a small plane with some big guns, and of course, the Supermarine Spitfire (below). The Spitfire is the best, isn’t it, the most beautiful of planes. I used to call it the X-Wing of World War Two when I was a kid, but even the X-Wing isn’t this beautiful and iconic. There isn’t a better plane (and I love an F16) but to Britons, this is the plane more than any other that represents the British spirit, Battle of Britain and all that. I do love a Spitfire. It also has the best name. If there was a Transformer with the name Spitfire, it would be the most popular robot, more than Bumblebee or Jazz. Remember those little foam planes you could buy in the corner shop, for about 20p or so, they had all the old planes and you attached a little plastic propellor to the front and flew them until they crashed into a bush or under a car? You can still get those actually, I’ve seen them over here. The Spitfire was always the best one, flying against the Messerschmidts, Sopwith Camels and and the (hehe) Fokkers.
