I haven’t posted a plane in a while so here you go (I looked back at my other aircraft postings and I say this every time – I’m clearly starting to repeat myself – sorry).  This shot was taken in the World War II exhibit at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.  If you haven’t visited this museum and you get the chance, go for it.  It’s a very cool place.  It’s located at Boeing Field (where they build the Boeing Jumbo Jets) and really is for all the family.

The museum has a number of different exhibit areas; there’s the main floor that has lots of commercial aircraft, a space exhibit area with information on space craft and the different NASA missions, a World War II area where you can see a number of old planes from the era and finally an outside exhibit area where you can view and walk in some old planes like JFK’s Air Force One jumbo (yes you can see where Jacky Onassis had a poo).  They used to have a Concord there and a Space Shuttle but I think they may have gone now.

So today’s plane is a 1944 Spitfire Mk IX.  When the Spitfire first came out in 1936 it was one of the fastest planes on the planet and four short years later held the German Luftwaffe (that’s the German Air Force) at bay in the Battle of Britain.  Ironically this plane probably stopped the invasion of the United Kingdom and arguably enabled the Allies to win the war.

The Museum’s Spitfire was built at Castle Bromwich in early 1944. Assigned to a fighting squadron by May, and was flown in support of the D-Day Invasion on June 6, 1944.  So this really is a piece of history.

Today Carter decided to do some painting, here he is just finishing his picture – pretty good eh?