The Aviation Historian
Most of us will remember the historical aviation magazine ‘Air Enthusiast’. However, in spite of its very interesting in-depth articles publication stopped a number of years ago. There is now a new quarterly magazine for the aviation enthusiast; ‘The Aviation Historian’. It is edited by a name familiar to ‘Aeroplane Monthly’ readers of some years ago: Nick Stroud.
In fact the new magazine is more a book rather than a magazine. It is soft-cover and bound instead of the usual folding and stapling for a normal magazine.
The contents of the first issue we received for review is very varied. It ranges from a two page article about an aircraft photographer being blown away when taking pictures of a KLM Boeing 747 at very close range to a 10 page article on Hawker Fury’s for Pakistan written by one of the ferry pilots. Some articles are somewhat light-hearted. Other articles, like the premature death of Hollywood actress Carole Lombard in a DC-3 crash give a more dramatic account of aviation stories from the past.
The photographs and other illustration material is of very high standards.
This first volume gives a detailed overview of the following subjects:
-the story of the photographer being blown away by a Boeing 747 as mentioned above
-a review of an air show in 1950 at Farnborough memorizing the RAF attack on the Amiens prison in France with Spitfires in Luftwaffe markings
-The DC-3 crash that killed American actress Carole Lombard in 1942
-a short impression of the strange Slingsby ‘flying billboard’ of 1968 that eventually never flew
-a detailed story on U.K Lightning jets intercepting a high-flying U-2 spy plane on a training mission
-Hawker Harts and Gloster Gladiators fighting at the Finnish air force
-operations of the R.A.F. in the Middle east between the wars
-the nice story of the DC-9 ‘Big Bunny’ from Play-Boy owner Hug Hefner
-a photo report of British pre-war private aircraft
-the ferry flight in 1949 of Hawker Fury fighters to Pakistan
-a detailed story on the Bristol Hercules radial engine
– the story of the Ryan built Rogallo designs ‘Flex-Wing’ and ‘Fleep’
-early design problems of the T-45 Goshawk trainer
-a story on pre-war flights of the Short Calcutta commercial flying boat operated by Imperial Airways
-a short article of French registered Boeing Stratoliners
There are practically no commercial adds in this magazine and the only time-related feature is a short review article on recent aviation books. All together it is a very varied selection of mostly lesser known aviation stories and all I can say it is 130 pages full of aviation pleasure reading!
The magazine is on a smaller format than the common A4; it measures 17 x 24.5 cm.
Subscription for one year with 4 issues is:
£ 44 for UK
£ 53 for Europe
£62 for rest of world
Website: see www.theaviationhistorian.com
With special thanks to Nick Stroud for providing a free review copy of the first issue.
Nico Braas
