Dear me, I must be a glutton for punishment. Hot on the heels of declaring that “Taildraggers Suck” (not everyone got the tongue-in-cheek humor behind the column’s title or necessarily read any further), I’m about to reach out and grab the third rail of aviation opinion: warbirds. As I recall, Martha Lunken took some serious heat from the warbird community a few years ago after she made some pithy comments at its expense, and former EAA President Rod Hightower stirred up a hornet’s nest in the other direction when he used one of his first columns in Sport Aviation to sing the praises of Nomex. Forget Oshkosh chalets or an autocratic management style, I maintain that Hightower’s downfall began right then and there. Yet here I go skipping down the primrose path. Henceforth I promise to constrain myself to less controversial subjects, like sex, politics and religion.
It seems pretty silly that warbirds generate such discord within the pilot community. These fast, agile and beautiful aircraft are widely admired among aviators; many are perennial fixtures on “favorite aircraft of all time” lists. The majority fought during World War II, the archetypical “just war.” Maintaining and flying these old birds is arguably a real public service, keeping history alive in a tangible form unrivaled by even the most immersive, interactive modern museums. One would think there would be universal acclaim for the men and women “keeping ’em flying” — most of all among pilots.
