Eurofighter Typhoon

Coningsby is now home to the world's best fighter aircraft - the Eurofighter Typhoon. And Flight Lieutenant Antony "Parky" Parkinson has no qualms about describing the aircraft, a highly agile twin-engine multi-role canard-delta fighter, as "amazing" despite never-ending controversy over its cost to the Defence budget - and whether or not it is needed at all.

"The raw performance of the Typhoon is amazing. The aircraft is incredibly powerful: we can go up to 55,000ft in a heartbeat," he said. "They can carry a lot of ordnance, and they are incredibly agile and manoeuvrable. And you can stuff them full of clever avionics - it's a thrilling experience to fly one."

The RAF have more than 50 of the aircraft - and upgrades have since been needed to the design costing millions. Flt Lt Parkinson was speaking as he showed veteran wartime fighter pilot Frank Blinkhorn around  Coningsby.Frank flew  Hurricanes and Spitfires worth a tiny fraction of the cost of a Eurofighter - and was shot down and rescued during his battle with the Luftwaffe.

 But he he feels sad that the respect his generation of pilots received appears to have lessened for today's servicemen and women. "I think it's a tragedy. During the war, we were the blue-eyed boys.

"I don't think the armed forces today generally get the recognition they deserve - people seem to think more of veterans like me these days than the people doing the job now, which is wrong."

Yet his greatest admiration is reserved for the "Bomber Boys" who went up in Lancasters  - often derided as "bus drivers" by the fighter boys who took all of the glamour in the RAF.

"You'd see the Lancasters going out, knowing that one in seven of them would not come back. Each had seven men on board. They didn't get the credit they deserve," he says.

"They're talking about giving them a medal - all these years later. That was real bravery - to go out knowing that one in seven of you wasn't coming back."