I DON'T understand the furore over the possible model of a Spitfire on its tail.

I am 87 years old and remember pre-war flights of the plane flying at Eastleigh and the astonishment at its capability of taking off and then going straight up.

Besides the sheer speed and the beautiful shape, it was this almost vertical flight that impressed many at that time.

I had seen no other plane like it.

Perhaps the critics have had no real experience of the Spitfire in its heyday.

DON RIDGE, Southampton.