CADPAT Freedom Kilt at Scottish Museum of Flight

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In the next hangar I was re-united with an old friend.

This handsome Beech 18, built in 1955, with her big piston radial engines was the pride of the Loganair fleet which I used to wash and valet for pocket money as a youngster. She maintained the Glasgow-Aberdeen-Stavanger route in an era when far fewer people travelled by air, and after she was superseded by faster, larger capacity, jets she became an air ambulance. One of her regular pilots was the late Captain Duncan MacIntosh, a lawyer turned pilot, who had a major influence in my life by his suggestion that I should study for a law degree before a pilot's licence.

I would have liked to find a Hurricane for Riverkilt, but this Spitfire was the next best thing.

Spitfires flew from here during World War II, but today's example now keeps company with this US Marines Phantom.

And this Soviet Mig

And this Harrier

And even a German Messcherschmitt Me-163B Komet. This was the fastest fighter in World War II, introduced by the Germans in 1944, but it had its limitations, being rocket powered it could climb quickly to intercept the bombers but then had only seven minutes fuel available before gliding back to earth.