Northwest Aerospace News June | July Issue No. 3 | Page 58

Childhood Dreams
By Dean Camercon
G
rowing up, I was the kid who built model airplanes
with stinky, messy glue and all the plastic parts you had to
twist off the injection mold web. I loved building them.
I had WWII planes and modern planes alike and I hung
them from my ceiling with fishing line. It was kind of like
a “Twilight Zone” dogfight with an F-111 bearing down
on a P-51 and other non-realistic anomalies. I really had a
passion for aircraft back then.
Little did I understand then how that interest would man-
ifest by becoming my career and how my manufacturing
background would lead me back into the aerospace realm. I
became involved with countless commercial aircraft interior
projects and met with aerospace companies all over the
US and beyond. My professional career re-established my
passion for aerospace and all its nuances.
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Turn the page, after 27 years, and now I am the CEO and
publisher of Northwest Aerospace News Magazine. It is an
honor to meet and learn from so many incredible people and
creative companies. I can honestly say that getting up to go
to work is a pleasure filled with surprises I never imagined.
One such surprise took place in early April of this year. As
a member of the Aerospace Media Community we were in-
vited to take a “Media Flight” on the Madras Maiden B-17.
It took me about one second to say an emphatic “YES!”
My inner child was excited beyond imagination to partici-
pate in this adventure. Flying in a WWII B-17 was some-
thing I could not have ever imagined having the opportunity
to do.