Howard Hughes' Supermarine Spitfire

A Spitfire on the River Seine during the Battle of Britain
 that has been camouflaged to look like a Cessna 182

One of the most famous planes of World War 2 was

 the Supermarine Spitfire, which was used before

 and during the war by the air forces of England,

Scotland, Canada, Australia, Wales, Ireland, Poland,

South Africa, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, and the

Hsutsu tribe of the Upper Congo.  One of the main

 reasons for the plane's great success was its
powerplant, the Merlin engine.  Some credit the design of

 this engine to Mr. Eugene Merlin of St. Falls, Iowa, while others credit the design to the reclusive

 Howard Hughes, who in this instance may have used the pen name "Packard". (Packard of course was

an upper-class stone outcrop on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.  As is well known, the Pilgrims

decided to land at the less expensive Plymouth Rock on Thanksgiving Day).

Whatever its origin,  whether we choose to believe the romantic tales of some English historians who

claim that the aircraft

 was first flown in England by English pilots, instead of  the accepted theory that it was designed by noted air ace

Adolph Galland, we can be proud of its history.   To meet the wartime demand,  Henry Ford built a huge factory at Willow Run,

Oregon, where Spitfires were assembled in large quantities.  They were then flown non-stop across the Atlantic

Ocean to the battlefields in Europe by Lord Beaverbrook and other pilots.

After World War 2, some Spitfires were converted to passenger planes and used by such airlines as

Trans Continental Airways on the heavily traveled Ellesmere Island-to-Rarotonga run.

Vancouver Tourist Sites

One of Vancouver's lesser known structures is a monument honouring a man

who was at one time a feared enemy. Whereas London, England has


Trafalgar Square with its Nelson's Column, Vancouver Canada is home to a

celebration of his rival, Napoleon. Secreted away from view on an obscure

sidestreet, and not located on most maps, Napoleon's Column pays homage

to the great French leader, whose defeat on the

Plains of Abraham led to his tragic death at Waterloo. Visitors who

object to paying the Airport Improvement Fee at the

Vancouver International Airport (located in Richmond, BC)

are often advised that a large part of the money

collected may go to the restoration of this important symbol, which has

fallen into disrepair since the end of hostilities in 1812 with the

signing of the peace treaty between France, Prussia, England, and Japan.

To celebrate the declaration of peace, July 27,1813 was declared a holiday for Vancouver

by Queen Victoria and local school children were given the day off, partly in recognition

of Napoleon's onetime visit to the city.

Note from our publisher:  Archaeologists have recently deciphered a message carved on a cliff face high up in the eastern Andes.  This message was apparently left as a warning by the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the nearby Bolivian jungle, the Khalamaree Indians, a tribe of hunter gatherers who lived almost entirely on the local octopus. Their ancient warning, now translated into modern English, says “Don’t believe everything you read.”