Description
Renowned for its in-depth articles from 250 specialist authors worldwide, The Aviation Historian is a quarterly journal that is valued and respected for its superb high-quality archive photography and specially-commissioned drawings, profiles and information graphics. Conceived and produced by a four-person team who between them have clocked up 84 years’ experience on aviation-history magazines, the journal combines traditional attention-to-detail with a modern tone.
Covering military and civil aviation from before the Wright Brothers to the dawn of spaceflight, this compact-format square-spined quarterly journal is designed to take its place alongside the most treasured books on your shelves. Making new discoveries in your favorite field of interest is always exciting, whether you’re a history aficionado, a modeler on the hunt for new projects, or both.
The Aviation Historian provides great reading and first-class reference material to feed your passion. It truly is “aviation history for connoisseurs."
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Table of Contents
EDITOR’S LETTER
AIR CORRESPONDENCE
THE WESTLAND AFFAIR
Professor Keith Hayward FRAeS examines the notorious political events of 1985–86 and the long-term effects they had on the future of Britain’s defence industrial base
THE ORIGINAL PHOTO BOMBERS
Bill Cahill explores the part played by the Boeing RB-29 Superfortress in the birth of Strategic Air Command’s global reconnaissance capability
CES HOMMES MAGNIFIQUES: JEAN DE CHAPPEDELAINE (AGAIN)
Jean-Christophe Carbonel’s series on France’s “magnificent men” concludes with a return to de Chappedelaine, and his attempt to exploit the “Magnus Effect” with the Aérogyre
HUNTER 80
Using declassified tactical documents, Peter Lewis opens a two-part series on Switzerland’s “Hunter 80” programme, in which the Hawker fighter was re-roled as a “mud-mover”
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY?
In his final article, the late Melvyn Hiscock recalls a series of conversations with illustrious company on the subject of a long-range photo-reconnaissance Spitfire “what if?”
THE GOLDEN AGE?
The Short Empire Flying Boats of Imperial Airways typified elegant, exotic travel in the 1930s — but was it really as glamorous as it seemed? Ralph Pegram investigates . . .
THE WORLD’S SMALLEST FIGHTER FORCE
In 1955 the small Central American nation of Costa Rica acquired four F-51D Mustangs; two were lost in accidents and the other two rarely flew, as Leif Hellström explains
A QUESTION OF CALIBRE
Armament specialist Mark Russell addresses a reader’s query regarding the 1930s RAF’s decision to stick with rifle-calibre ammunition, even well into World War Two
THE COMPAÑIA DE AVIACIÓN FAUCETT STORY
Maurice Wickstead chronicles the genesis and evolution of Peru’s de facto national airline, established by American expatriate Elmer “Slim” Faucett in 1928
VICTOR/MARTEL
The use of the Shrike anti-radar missile by Vulcans in the Falklands in 1982 is well-known; the fact that plans were made to equip the Victor with the Anglo-French Martel for the same mission is not, as Tom Withington reveals
AMERICAN AVIATORS IN JAPAN Pt 1
In the first half of a new series, Edward M. Young details the pre-First World War Oriental aerial adventures of James “Bud” Mars, William B. Atwater and Charles F. Niles
CANADA’S ICE PATROL
Nick Stroud looks into the story behind an intriguing batch of Douglas DC-4 negatives found in the TAH archive
ARMCHAIR AVIATION
LOST & FOUND
MONSIEUR DELPRAT’S FLYING SUMMERHOUSE
Moving house — literally; Philip Jarrett brings to light a proposal for an extraordinary Edwardian flying machine
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK