Pretty good, but no cigar! It's a Macchi C202, here's the one in the Smithsonian. I was listening to a museum guide explain it to people, when he described it as a "Ferrari airplane", because of the prancing horse. I felt obliged to point out that it was nothing to do with Ferrari, but rather the 90th squadron emblem of Baracca fame. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ahh. Nice one. Dare I say it, the front of that aircraft is a dead ringer for a real ME109... And...shields! Excellent.
Funnily enough, I attended a function at the Aeroclub Francesco Baracca in Lugo a month ago - prancing horses everywhere - the original (supposedly) prancing horses....
in point of pedantic fact, the "original" prancing horse was the symbol of Stuttgart, Baracca painted it on his plane after he shot down a German ace. Just don't tell Wes...
Very special Ferrari engined boat that held speed records for a long time, some of the models of that boat fetch nice money
Blimey! Anyone want to have a guess what the aircraft in the first pic in that article is? Ian? Slightly off topic, but if you want to read a realistic portrayal of the first year of the aerial war (albeit fictional), check out Derek Robinsons "Piece of Cake". Don't watch the movie / mini series that was loosely based on it, but the original book is excellent. A fantastic read.
One of the best non-fiction WW2 war books is "I fought you from the skies" by Willi Heilmann, still available on Amazon. An FW190 pilot in the last year of the war, brilliant writing.
