Aeons ago, Flying had a regular column called Foreign Accent that reported on aeronautical doings abroad. I was writing it in 1976, and in the February issue I quoted a letter, originally published in the British magazine Flight, from one James Ferguson of Aberdeen, regarding the flight around England and Scotland of a World War II Avro Lancaster bomber, which was powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlins:
“… the attention of … police … was drawn to a badly parked car, and, breathalysers at the ready, the car’s crew approached the driver, a well-dressed, middle-aged man. He appeared to be in some distress, and the crew called their sergeant, a much older officer, who eventually discovered that the driver had been making his way home when the Lancaster had passed overhead. An ex-Bomber Command air gunner, he had been overcome by the music of the Merlins and, blinded by tears, had stopped his car.”
