October
1938
Volume
7 Number 7 (79 of 88)
This issue of Popular Flying magazine features NO “Biggles” story. The last “Biggles” story was published in the May 1934 issue
Contents
This issue runs from page 329 to page 380 (52 pages)
Page 330 – Contents Page
(The contents page is by an advert for Wills’s Gold Flake cigarettes)
Page
332 – Snapped in the Air – A remarkable photograph of a Hawker “Osprey”
seaplane coming out of a loop somewhere in the Mediterranean
Page
225 – The Editor’s Cockpit – W. E. Johns
(Not
Subtitled – In a absolutely fascinating editorial, Johns talks about the death
and disaster that has befallen those around him on September 16th of
the years 1915 to 1918 inclusive. It
was September 16th 1918 that he himself was shot down and his gunner
killed)
Page
334 – Technical Treachery – by “Quaestor”
(I
don’t know who “Quaestor” is – whether it is W.
E. Johns or not – but this article continues from page
334 where Johns ends his editorial and it runs as if it was part of his
editorial. The article talks of the
vested self interest that some Civil Servants seem to be displaying now
standards have been lowered to obtain sufficient staff at short notice)
Page 336 – Air Exercises – Pulling the Bomber’s Punches – E. Colston Shepherd
(“Explain how you would employ 500 bombers
against multiple targets in an area 200 miles long
by 200 miles wide if the cloud-base were at 2,000 feet and visibility were never more than two miles”)
Page 339 – The Civil Air Guard – Your Opportunity to Fly
(“The
lighter side of the scheme and its applications is dealt with more fully, but
without malice, on pages 353 to 356 of this issue”)
Page
342 – The Truth About Training – by “Atlas”
(The
Air Ministry is a much-maligned body.
In these days of expansion Adastral House stands like an official Aunt
Sally, a target for pink-hued politicians, newspapers and petty officials to
belabour with their missiles of ill-informed criticism. The most recent outcry has been against the
methods of training pilots for the R. A. F.
Page
344- The Great British – American War! – Arch Whitehouse (Our Correspondent in
America)
(“Britain
and the United States continue to pointedly misunderstand each other in
relation to Aviation because they are so much alike in matters on which they
disagree. But Aviation writers are to
blame.
Page 348 – Frank Luke – W. J. Boylhart
(“The remarkable story of the stormy Petrel
of American War-time Aviation
Luke
won 21 victories within two weeks. When
he was eventually shot down, although wounded he fought on with his revolver
until shot dead.
He was the only aviator to receive the
Congrssional Medal of Honor during the War)
Page 352 – A Few Notes on Archies
(A
short essay on the calculations needed to get a shell to explode where a plane
is going to be when the shell reaches it)
Page 353 – ‘The Civil Air Guard Gazette’ or Balfour Boomerang
(The pictures above and below, show this “newspaper” in detail)
Pages
354 and 355 – The Centre Pages – Articles from ‘The Civl Air Guard Gazette’
which commenced on the preceding page
Page 356 – The last page of ‘The Civil Air Guard Gazette’
Page 357 – Under the Windstocking
(“Readers’ Correspondence, conducted by the
Editor”
This months entry includes a photograph of the
excavated ruins at Knossos in Crete – “Scene of the First Flight in History?”
is the caption as the story of Icarus and the wax melting on his feathered wings as he flew too close to the sun is outlined)
Page 358 – Flying Wires – Air News from all points of the compass
(One particularly interesting items of news is “There are now 2,000 commercial pilots and 3,000 ground engineers in the Empire”)
Page 357 – An Off-Set to our Air Vulnerability – J. M. Spaight
(The aim of each belligerent will be to impede his enemy’s production and to safeguard his own. The aircraft and engine factories, as well as the depots and parks in which reserves are stored become in the long term the obvious objective of air attack. It is easier to catch the machines there than in the air, and preventing them being built or destroying them when built lightens ‘pro tanto’ the danger to one’s own factories”)
Page 364 – Modern Plane Topics – by “Airfoil”
“(How best to describe the pursuit of model aeroplane building and flying? There is a question that is difficult to answer. Pastime? Hobby? Sport? Recreation? Craft? Science? No one of the words is adequate, for model aeronautics embraces all these descriptions”. “In Great Britain alone there are now more than one hundred and fifty active model aeroplane clubs, and new clubs are added to the total almost every week.”)
Page 368 – ‘Planes and Personalities – A Monthly Causerie of Men and Machines – By “Observer”
(There is mention of Robert Wyndham –
Hollywood stunt man – who lost his left arm in a plane crash making Howard
Hughes’ film epic
“Hell’s Angels” but most interestingly there is an account of a meeting with Mr. G. D. Lewis from Southern Rhodesia – headed Richthofen’s Last “Victim” – Lewis is quoted as saying “I knew who it was the moment I saw that all-red triplane and though I did manage to get one lucky burst into Richthofen’s tail he was much too good for me. Next thing I knew I was going down in a cloud of smoke with my emergency petrol-tan well alight.”)
Page 372 – The New Book
(A review of one book only – The Royal Air Force by F. M. Monk and H. T. Winter)
Page 375 – Tarmac Jottings
(This is five small paragraphs of
information – one correcting a mistake in Shells advert last month which
featured Louis Bleriot.
The advert had said that his aircraft was the first seen in England but many readers had written in to point out that was not correct.)
Page 380 – The Buyers’ Log
(This carries the same Royal Air Force advert for vacancies for air observers and for pilots as set out in previous months)
Inside Back Cover – Advert for the Aviation Book Club
(The selection committee are Air-Commodore
J. A Chamier, Captain W. E. Johns (Editor of ‘FLYING’ and ‘POPULAR FLYING’)
and Major C. H Daniels)
Back Page – Advert for Royal Seal Blended Virginia (tobacco)
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