May
1934
Volume
3 Number 2 (26 of 88)
This issue of Popular Flying magazine was the last ever to feature a “Biggles” story
The Sheikh and the
Greek
This issue runs from page 53 to page 104 (52 pages)
Page
56 – Contents Page
Page
58 – Alex! Ras-el-Tin, the beautiful
harbour at Alexandria
(A
photograph of the harbour “now a port of call on the Imperial Route to
Capetown”)
Page
59 – The Editor’s Cockpit – W. E. Johns
(Subtitled
– Petrol and Propriety – “Petrol in this country is subject to a tax of 8d per
gallon, and in case you wonder how or why any commodity should carry a charge
so disproportionate to its value, I will tell you. The reason is because any government, when it is in desperate
straits for money, will tax to the limit any indispensable article for which
there is no substitute, or any industry that has no alternative but to accept
its imposition. In the past it varied
from salt to windows, both of which were essential; later, it became tobacco,
alcoholic beverages and tea. Petrol, a
new but widely used commodity without an efficient substitute, was certain to
feel the blast. Naturally, the
Government does not say that; the upkeep of roads was made the excuse for the
exorbitant tax. The patient to be bled
was, of course, the motor car industry, and it is quite possible that Aviation
was not even taken into consideration; but to inflict upon a baby industry the
same crushing burden as on an established one, was something approaching
infanticide”)
434
Page
70 – The D.H. Leopard Moth – Flight-Lieut. C. Turner Hughes
Page
72 – Flying Wires – Condensed news items intercepted during the last month
Page
74 – My Most Thrilling Flight – D. G. Lewis
(Subtitled
– An Encounter with Richthofen – the last person shot down by Baron von
Richthofen tells his story)
This
Biggles story continues on pages 77, 80, 81, 90, 92 and 102
The
illustrations are by Mendoza and Edward Oldham.
W.
E. Johns is not credited at all on this story.
Page
94 – Motor Mutterings – “Janus”
(A
note on this page under the heading of – Under the Windstocking – says “We very
much regret that owing to lack of space this popular feature has unavoidably
been held over. Letters arranged for
publication this month will therefore appear in the June issue. The Editor takes this opportunity of
thanking those readers who were good enough to reply to the April “Cicelet”
query; the information will be published in due course”)
On
the back cover is the usual John Hamilton advert – again the advert is for none
of their books.
Instead,
the advert is for “Eight Fine Reproductions in full colour of Paintings by
Stanley Orton Bradshaw” and also “Reproductions of 24 Etchings by Howard Leigh”
(presumably the ones later published in his “Planes of the Great War”)
Click here
to see a much larger picture of the cover artwork – the artist is W. E. Johns
himself
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