May
1936
Volume
5 Number 2 (50 of 88)
This issue of Popular Flying magazine features NO “Biggles” story. The last “Biggles” story was published in the May 1934 issue
This issue of Popular Flying magazine contained a free supplementary print illustrated by Howard Leigh
Short
“Singapore III” 4 Rolls-Royce “Kestrel” Engines
This issue runs from page 57 to page 112 (56 pages)
Page
62 – Not So Very Long Ago – Historic Photograph of Hawker at the start of the
Daily Mail circuit of Britain 1913
Page
63 – The Editor’s Cockpit – W. E. Johns
(Subtitled
“On the Folly of War” – Johns editorial deals with the world situation
following Hitler’s remilitarisation of the Rhineland. “These words are written in the hope that they will dispel any
lingering suspicion that this magazine is a protagonist of the dreadful
business of war” ………………… Later in the
article Johns says “Hitler says he doesn’t want war, and I believe he is
speaking the truth. Let us give him the
benefit of the doubt”
Also
on this page, for the first time we see a photograph of W.
E. Johns with the caption “I am exceedingly sorry to
inflict this on the 99 per cent. of readers who, perhaps wisely, have not
expressed the slightest curiosity as to what I look like, but I am taking this,
the cheapest way, of satisfying those die-hards who keep writing to me for a
photograph. This cost me a shilling in
the Strand, so take a good look, for it will never be repeated”)
Page
66 – The Re-Armament Question – Captain J. E. Doyle
(This
article is illustrated with photographs of the Fairey “Battle”. “It is all metal and is fitted with a
Rolls-Royce “Merlin” engine. No
performance figures are yet available for publication”. This is the first mention I have come across
of a Merlin engine which was to famously power the “Spitfire”. The very first Spitfire prototype (K5054)
flight took place on 5th March 1936 at 4.35 pm. but as yet I can
find now mention of the Spitfire in Popular Flying Magazine)
Page
69 – Via Atlantic – William Courtenay
(This
article features a photograph of “The new giant Zeppelin “Hindenburg” making
her trial flight over Lake Constance.
She is intended for the Atlantic service”)
Page
71 – Psychology in Aerial Fighting – by “McScotch”
Page
74 – How to do that there ‘ere – Flight-Lieut. Tom Rose, D.F.C.
(This
article contains some amusing advice about flying. There is also advice about what not to say – one of which is “Of
course I will let you have a short article, old boy”. “If you do, the editor invariably throws it in the wastepaper
basket, writes one himself under your name and never speaks to you again”. Interestingly, Johns adds
“Some
might, but not us – W.E.J.”)
Page
76 – Flamingo – John C. Hook (with acknowledgments to publishers of Udet’s
autobiography “Mein Fliegerleben”)
(“An
account of the war career of Obl. Ernst Udet, who with 62 confirmed victories,
is the leading surviving German war ace.
He is still a masterly pilot in regular practice. Flamingo was the name of his machine”)
Page
79 – A Really Light Aeroplane – The B.A.C. Drone – C. L. Startup (Staff pilot,
“Popular Flying”)
Page
80 – A Flight in Abyssinia – Oloff De Wet
Page
82 – London to the Cape in a Baby Plane – David Llewellyn
(“Gales
and Floods and Sandstorms make Thrills for my Journey – Forty desperate hours
in the Jungle”)
Pages
84 and 85 – The Centre Pages – “Things to Come” – Scenes from London Film
Productions Great Spectacle
Page
86 – Flying Wires – From All Quarters
(These
brief news items still make no reference to the very first Spitfire flight
which took place on 5th March 1936)
Page
88 – Pioneers of the Air Raid – Michael Lorant
Page
90 – In Lighter Vein
Click here
to see a much larger picture of the cover artwork – the artist is Howard Leigh
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