Cranfield
IT'S A familiar-looking place with an unfamiliar feeling. Or maybe it's an unfamiliar-looking place with a familiar feeling. Either way, it's neither an unpleasant feeling nor an unfriendly place. Rather, it's like something you've seen before that's been transported to a new setting. Called a "rally" in the British nomenclature, it's actually an English version of the fly-in. The International Rally of the Popular Flying Association (PFA), held annually at Cranfield Aerodrome near London, is the British answer to Oshkosh.
Golden-Age Racing Planes
While the life span of these planes was just around 20 years they have held the hearts and imaginations of aviation enthusiasts from the time they were first rolled out to a race course. By all rights there shouldn't be a scrap of even one of them left. As a group, they were about the worst-flying craft that ever took off, and they engaged in the most dangerous sort of flying possible in peacetime.
