The simple answer is that I'm just an airplane nut who likes writing. I'm told that my first word somehow related to airplanes flying overhead, and it's been a downhill slide ever since. If it has wings, rotors, or rockets, I'm interested in it. I've been very lucky to have a number of experiences that have moved this interest along steadily, including a summer job in my youth at a small regional airline. Once I had moved from a person interested to reading about airplanes to a person who was lucky enough to run his hand over one, and then fly one, and then jump out of one (unrelated ;) ), I have to say that my feet are on the ground, but my head is most definitely in the clouds.
Two other events pushed things along. In the spring of 1998, I joined, and then helped run, a web site devoted to another longtime interest....the mating of the home computer with flight simulators. SimHQ.com became at one point both a major time-sponge, and an incredible vehicle to meet and talk to the people who have made aviation history. Through it, I've flown on a WWII bomber, spoken with Axis and Allied pilots of the war, and met historians, authors, and, of course, aircrew who have flown the aircraft of the past, present, and future. I'm a lucky man to claim some of them as friends. Most of what you read at this site came about in some way because of SimHQ, and there's a debt to that site that I'm not sure I can repay.
The last factor would have to be my family. My father told me early on of his love of flying and the lessons he took as a young man, and if that got me started, the education of my grandfather's WWII experiences put me over the top. Since the spring of 1999, when he first talked about "his war" to the family, it's been an amazing lesson in the power of history and the guts that men have had to take to the sky in combat. We all owe them, no matter what they flew, or when.
All web sites are, when you get right down to it, about the people who put them up, but in a way, this site is about all of those people I've met, or talked to, or interviewed. I hope you enjoy reading the content as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
Take a minute, check out the articles, and drop me a line if you feel like it, or have an idea for an article or interview. I'd love to hear from you.
May you always have clear skies, plenty of fuel, and the wind under your wings,
John