Ep.228 - Jonathan McNee BEM and Aviation Archaeology

Good evening.

Good to ...

Glad to be with you.

Uh, it's, uh, it's a real pleasure to have you.

Uh, I'm delighted to have you on board for this feature.

Um, it's a topic I'm really unfamiliar with, and I think most people are.

But before we talk about aviation archeology, let's have a little dig into how you got interested in aviation.

And although the listeners can't see it, I'm looking at you in a room with lots of great models and photos of aircraft.

So, in there is a real aviation geek.

Where did that come from?

I honestly don't know, uh, and have been asked the question several times.

Um, I sort of been speaking to, like, my mom and dad, and they just said, you know, "As a child, three or four, we would've bought you or Santa would've brought you a Christmas, you know, a- an Airfix kit." And, uh, uh, you can imagine, you know, a three or four year old on the kitchen table gluing himself to the, to the table [laughs] and then spilling the enamel paint everywhere.

I just apparently was never happy.

They, they would set me up on Christmas Day and I wouldn't be seen till, like, Boxing Day or the day after-

Yeah, yeah

... making really bad Spitfires and Hurricanes and Lancasters and-

[laughs]

... and Mosquitoes.

Um, and it sort of, I never, you know, grew out of that.

There was always that inner feeling that this is something interesting.

Uh, and then my father, um, announced one day that he was going to become a minister.

He was leaving his very well-paid job as a, a company director in Northern Ireland, and said, "From now on, we're gonna have no money, and I'm training to join the church."

Wow.

Um, and then, uh, you know, w- we, we all sat there laughing waiting for the punchline, but it never came.

He actually did go to Dublin-