Leprechaun - that Dehavilland is a de Havilland, and the company made a number of different models that made it into squadron service. The fighers were the DH2 - a pusher biplane single seater that helped overcome the Fokker Menace (Eindekkers) and the DH5 was a tractor biplane with a curious backward stagger. And I wouldn't really believe anything that Mr Fokker said either. A notorious self-publicist and truth stretcher!

So my favourite WW1 plane? Siemens-Schuckert DIV for a fighter, but for real fun check out the German R-planes like the Staakens. The Putnam book 'The German Giants' (ISBN 0 85177 812 7) gives full details of design and operation.

The Whirlwind was a Westland design (WEW Petter) and I don't think it was based on the DH Comet, although it looked similar. It did 360mph, entered squdron service in June 1940 and had four 20mm cannon. But the Rolls Royce Peregrine engines were a bit suspect so production finished in 1942. A later Petter design, the Welkin, was designed to operate up to 44,000ft, but the German high altitude bombers and reccy 'planes never materialsed so they were never issued to a squadron.

The P51 was a North American design (Raymond Rice and Edgar Schuel) which came about when the company said they could produce a new 'plane rather than the Curtiss Hawk 81A-1 (P40 Warhawk) us Brits had asked them to make for us. From order to prototype in 120 days!

Favourites for WW2? It's got to be the 'wooden wonder' the de Havilland Mosquito - unarmed fast bomber, photo reconnaissance, night fighter, day fighter, maritime strike, even a carrier-based torpedo reconnaissance just after the war. Along with the Ju88 it did everything, but was a later design than the Junkers, and better-looking as well. But for pure looks only - the Martin-Baker MB5.