Went to Brooklands on Sunday, and they were running a few old things.

Some replica aeroplanes being started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbvaEpcj7ao

The Napier Railton racing car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwDSBxxfigo

It's bad enough starting model aircraft engines and at least then you could only lose a finger.

I preferred the old Rolls Royce system, with a large metal rod on top of a pole, coming out of the engine, it was placed onto the hub of the prop and it rotated and started the plane motor, no hands to lose.

I love the old planes. Shame so few are still flying. My father learnt to fly in a Tigermoth. That probably wouldn't pass health and safety today, either - with the fuel tank over the pilots head!

I always had a penchant for the Spads, especially the later ones, with lower over wings and swept back wing design.

The Hawkers (Hart etc.) and Avros were also lovely planes. Much more "civilised" war machines than modern planes and required real skill to keep them in the air, let alone fight an opponent, none of the modern fire and forget, you really had to work in those planes. But the code of conduct for (most of) the pilots was also very different.

Channel 4 recently had a programme where they took two modern fighter pilots and put them in WWI planes and got them to perform various tasks, such as aerial photography (with correct kit), dog fights, etc.. Very interesting to watch. They coped (they were very skilled test pilots), but they had to learn to fly the old fashioned way.

What was that called please? Sounds good enough to bear the adverts for.