Ontario man takes ‘thrill of a lifetime’ flight in dad’s plane nearly 80 years after WW II | 24CA News
As a baby, Wilson Nixon would sit on the high of the steps of the household house and pay attention to his father Harold’s tales about his time as a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fighter pilot within the Second World War.
Wilson mentioned his dad did not speak a lot with him concerning the battle, however he would often inform company about canine fights with German Messerschmitt airplane pilots or his time stranded behind enemy strains.
Wilson, now 70, mentioned the tales at all times caught with him, but it surely wasn’t till this October, when British watchmaker Colin Andrews despatched him a Facebook message, that he discovered extra of his father’s story and had a possibility to fly within the Spitfire fighter airplane his father as soon as used within the battle.
The historical past of Harold J. Nixon
Harold Joseph Nixon was born in Hamilton in 1919, went to Central Collegiate for highschool and was learning engineering at McMaster University in 1941 when he signed as much as battle with the RCAF.
Harold was flying a distinct fighter airplane on July 27, 1944, when he was shot down by what was doubtless a German tank. A debriefing doc Andrews found whereas writing a biography on Harold exhibits that he spent over a month behind enemy strains, looking for his means again to Allied forces.
Archival footage exhibits Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Harold Nixon flying a Spitfire fighter airplane throughout the Second World War. (Submitted by Colin Andrews/Imperial War Museum)
On Sept. 24, the Hamilton Spectator reported Harold was lacking, however previously categorised paperwork present he made it again behind Allied strains on Sept. 1, 1944.
While he served within the RCAF, Harold flew the recovered Spitfire 5 instances.
Another RCAF pilot flew the Spitfire 25 instances greater than Wilson’s father, and was piloting the airplane when it was shot down.
Andrews uncovered all of this whereas he was engaged on a biography about Harold, after he created a collection of watches from scrap steel taken from the Spitfire.
“It’s not just a bit of metal — it’s a bit of metal that this is the story behind it,” Andrews mentioned.
“The Spitfire was operating from France when it got shot down. It was the 30th of July, 1944.”
Andrews mentioned that at that time, the German Luftwaffe, or air power, was “pretty much demolished,” and pilots had been on the lookout for floor targets like vehicles and homes to assault.
“It looks like somebody shot at the Spitfire, hit it under the wing,” Andrews mentioned, including the radiator beneath the wing of the airplane doubtless overheated and stopped the engine.
The airplane wasn’t recovered till the late Eighties.
“Partly it survived and wasn’t recovered because of its location, because it was in a difficult-to-reach location, in a sort of marshy field,” Andrews mentioned.
The airplane spent a long time in several battle museums earlier than the Biggin Hill Heritage Hanger, an organization specializing in Spitfire restorations, purchased the airplane and put it again in working situation.
The inaugural flight
Harold handed away in 1985, however Wilson had the prospect to attach together with his father in a means he by no means thought he would.
Andrews invited Wilson to England on the finish of October, 2022 to participate within the inaugural flight of the refurbished Spitfire.
As a part of the airplane’s christening, Wilson, together with the son and nephew of the airplane’s closing pilot, Harold Kramer, flew within the Spitfire, with the assistance of a licensed pilot, and had been in a position to take over the controls of the airplane for a brief interval.
“They took me up in the plane for about half an hour and I was given basic instruction on different things, but main thing being that I was able to fly it for a short time, which was unbelievable,” Wilson mentioned.
“I mean, it was the thrill of a lifetime.”
Wilson mentioned that up within the airplane, he may see nothing however empty sky round him. He pictured what it will be like, to really feel so uncovered to different enemy pilots, and considered his dad sitting within the pilot seat.
“At one point, before I was flying it, I closed my eyes and I just pictured my father in front of me … flying the Spitfire.
“Just superb.”
