April
1939
Volume
8 Number 1 (85 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 1 to page 48 (48 pages)
Inside front cover – An advert for Lockheed “Retraction!” Undercarriage
Page 2 – Contents Page
(The contents page is by an advert for Wills’s Gold Flake cigarettes)
Page
4 – A photograph of the Monospar ambulance machine, “Florence Nightingale”
Page
5 – The Editor’s Cockpit – W. E. Johns
(Not
Subtitled – Johns has written this editorial whilst on holiday in the low Alps
recovering from influenza.
He
is between France and Italy and talks about all the guns he can see from where
he lays and how mad it all is)
Page
6 – Naval Aircraft in War – Louis Aubert
(The
author hypothesises about a war either between Britain and France and Germany
or Britain and France and Italy and Germany and the use of the navies of
Britain and France in the Atlantic and Mediterranean)
Page 10 – Air Travel in Africa – by “H. W.”
(“The
Africa of to-day can be visited without difficulty, thanks to the aeroplane and
to long years of patient flying by pioneers and others”)
Page
13 – The Expansion of an Air Force
(The
author talks about the R.A.F. as the Cinderella of the Services and says
“indeed rags were the portion of that Force
between the years 1919 and 1935. Since then, however golden apparel has begun
to replace the rags”)
Page
14 – Why the Gas Masks? – Arch Whitehouse
(The
authors queries if an attack with poison gas could really be carried out by
aerial bombardment)
Page 16 – The Bird’s Power Loading – General W. B. Caddell
(An article about bird flight as compared to aircraft flight)
Page 20 – Flying Wires – Air News from all Points of the Compass
(One particularly interesting item of news
is that of the 31 Empire flying-boats
that have been delivered to Imperial Airways since 1937, six have been lost)
Page 22 – Aviation in Russia – Dr. Louis Segal
(A run down of the state of aviation in
Russia. Of interest are the estimates
of the number of Aeroplanes that the Axis powers have.
6,000 for Germany, 4,000 for Italy and 3,500 for Japan. No estimate is given for Russia, presumably due to the secrecy in
that country)
Pages
24 and 25 – The Centre Pages – Italian Wings Over Spain – Eight photographs
showing Italian Bombers assisting General Franco
Page 26 – Light ‘Planes and the Flying Clubs – C. Nepean Bishop
(An article about how private flying clubs
came into being and the types of planes used for training. The article refers to one biplane that is
still regularly flown today -The Tiger Moth, “which is used by nine civil clubs
and also by the majority of R.A.F.V.R. training centres as well.
The Tiger is used all over the world, and there are probably more flying at the moment than any other type of training biplane”)
Page 30 – Henshaw’s Great Flight
(“Even the embittered few who sneer at record breaking and regard the more courageous flights as pandering to sensationalism, can have nothing but praise for the exploit of Alex Henshaw in flying to the Cape and back in 4 days, 10 hours, 21 minutes”)
Page 31 – The Lockheed Fighter – Arch Whitehouse
(A report on the new American Lockheed XP-38 fighter, which has recently crashed)
Page 32 – Gottfried Banfield – The Ace of Trieste – H. J. Wilson
(At the beginning of the First World War,
Austria only had four Naval Air Service pilots and Banfield was one of them.
This article explores his career in which he had 10 victories)
Page 34 – Have you Met Mr. Jones?
(Johnny Jones flew his 50 horse power plane from Los Angeles, California, non-stop to New York City and the 2,785 mile journey, which took 30 hours and 47 minutes only cost him £5.00. This compared to the cheapest bus ride which was £8.00, 10 shillings)
Page 35 – Memorable Mess Nights – Major Oliver Stewart
(This article talks about how officers amused themselves in the mess. Officers who were gifted musicians were particularly sort after by various squadrons. Games such as “tanks” were played – involved two upended sofas with officers underneath, trying to overturn the other)
Page 36 – A Review of 1938 Air Mails – Francis J. Field
(The author talks about worldwide air mail routes)
Page 37 – An advert for K.L.G. Sparking Plugs referring to Alex Henshaw’s successful Cape Record attempt (from London to Cape Town and back)
Page 38 – A full page reproduction of a Cable and Wirelss telegram from Henshaw (see above) confirming “there is no better oil than Castrol”
Page 39 – Aviation’s Middle Men – Major Oliver Stewart
(The author was a ferry pilot in the First World War flying planes out to France and he tells of his adventures)
Page 41 – An advert for Shell again referring to Henshaw (see above) – “Mr. Henshaw was sure of Shell”
Page 48 – The Buyers’ Log
(This carries the same Royal Air Force advert for vacancies for pilots and air observers as set out in previous months)
Inside Back Cover – Advert for Grey’s Cigarettes
Back Page – An Advert for the M.G. Midget
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