July
1936
Volume
5 Number 4 (52 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
Running
the Gauntlet
A
Hawker “Demon” intercepted during air operations by three Gloucester
“Gauntlets”
This issue runs from page 169 to page 228 (60 pages)
Page
174 – Volunteers – No. 604 (County of Middlesex) (Fighter) Squadron, equipped
with Hawker “Demon” fighters
Page
175 – The Editor’s Cockpit – W. E. Johns
(Not
subtitled – Johns talks about the biggest menace to world peace and says “The
greatest menace which civilisation has permitted to come into being is the fact
that one or two men, actuated by mercenary or personal motives, can, by means
of subtle propaganda in the newspapers they own, sway an entire nation into a
mob of gibbering fanatics, thirsting for the blood of another nation that has
never done them any harm, or even contemplated doing them any harm – That, of
course, is only my personal opinion. I
may be quite wrong”)
Page
178 – Flying Luck – G. D. Fleming, R.A.F.O.
(The
author talks about his various flying experiences.
On
page 180 there is a photo of “the author with the lioness he shot on Nairobi
aerodrome”)
Page
182 – New Equipment – Howard Leigh
(This
is the first every article I have seen in Popular Flying Magazine by the
renowned artist, Howard Leigh.
On
page 184, a paragraph reads “The Hawker Aircraft Company have added another
machine to their long line of worthy aircraft.
This time it is a low-wing high performance single-seater monoplane.
Designed as a fighter, it is equipped with retractable undercarriage,
wing-flaps and enclosed cockpit with sliding panels. No information has yet been published regarding performance, but
it is well known that the machine has set a new standard which will be hard to
surpass”.
I
assume this must be the first reference in Popular Flying Magazine to the
Hurricane. Designed by Sydney Camm, who
began its design in 1934, the prototype first took to the air on November 6th
1935 at Brooklands and the initial production Hurricane (Mark I) entered R.A.F.
service in December 1937 with Number 111 Squadron. Powered by the famous Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, it became the
first R.A.F. monoplane fighter with an enclosed cockpit and retractable
undercarriage and was the first R.A.F. fighter monoplane capable of exceeding
300 mph in level flight
– still no mention of Supermarine’s Spitfire
though…….)
Page
185 – Devotion to Duty – by “McScotch”
Page 188 – Other People’s Air Forces – Howard Leigh
(“A
short review of some of the Air Forces of the World”
This
is only the second ever article by Howard Leigh and it is in the same issue as
his first – see above)
Page
192 – The Development of Formation Flying in the German Air Force – John C.
Hook
(An
account of the scout Jagdstaffels and jagdgeschwaders during the War)
Page
195 – A Stratosphere School in Italy – E. Bartch
Page
196 – My Airship Adventure – J. H. Vickers
Pages
198 and 199 – The Centre Pages – “Seconds out of the Ring!” – A typical
dog-fight in the roaring days of 1918
–
illustrated by Howard Leigh
Page
200 – Grecian Interlude – Sidelines on War flying from a new angle – L. A.
Jessop
Page
203 – When Soldiers Flew the Mails – Nigel Tangye
Page
205 – Flying Wires – From All Quarters
(These
brief news items again make no reference to the very first Spitfire flight
which took place on 5th March 1936)
Click here
to see a much larger picture of the cover artwork – the artist is Howard Leigh
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