July
1939
Volume
8 Number 4 (88 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 145 to page 192 (48 pages)

Inside front cover – An advert for Lockheed Hydraulic ‘Airdraulic’ Struts

Page 145 – An advert for Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
(This is the first and only advert I have
ever seen for this company!)
Page 146 – Contents Page
(The contents page is by an advert for Air
France)

Page
148 – “A fine photo of the Cunliffe Owen Flying Wing on a test flight over
Southampton Water”
Page
149 – The Editor’s Cockpit – NO LONGER
BY W. E. Johns AS HE HAD BEEN REMOVED AS EDITOR OF
POPULAR FLYING
(Subtitled
– Under the title: AERONAUTICS. The
author (credited as Oliver Stewart) announces “thoroughness rather than newness
is to be the objective of the publication about which, with the present
permission of the Editor of POPULAR FLYING, I here intend to disclose some
preliminary details. Incorporating
POPULAR FLYING and using that as its foundation, it will appear for the first
time next month under the title: AERONAUTICS”)
Page
150 – Refuelling in the Air – T. S.
Sprigg
(“Not
so very many years ago the refuelling of one aircraft from another while both
were in flight was regarded solely as a spectacular stunt, well suited to
flying displays and air circuses but with no practical application to the needs
of serious flying”)
Page 154 – The Bristol Bombay – William Courtenay
(“Our cover this month depicts three of the
new troop-carriers flying over desolate country, to bring supplies to an
isolated body of men”)
Page 156 – The Air Picture and How – by “Quis”
(“The difference between a good and a very ordinary
picture is largely the difference between the
amount of trouble one takes before and
during the operation of pressing the knob or squeezing the bulb”)
Page 159 – Charting the World’s Winds – R. Fetherston Lambert
(An article about the work of the
International Meteorological Organisation)
Page 160 – The Framework of the R. A. F.
(A run down of the basic organisation of the
R.A.F.)
Page 162 – Welding in Aircraft – C. W. Brett
(“It is interesting to observe that welded
tubular construction shows to greater advantage under war than peace-time
conditions, for it is better able to withstand rough handling, whilst the shock
absorbing qualities of the material and its freedom from splintering are
important qualities”)
Page 164 – Handley Page – Hampden –
Details of Britain’s Latest Bomber - Fighter
(“Latest of British military aircraft to
emerge from behind the veil of official secrecy which conceals the performance
and internal structure of the R.A.F.’s newest equipment is the Handley Page
Hampden, a twin-engined bomber-fighter, now revealed as one of the fastest and
most formidable aircraft of its class anywhere in the world”)

Pages
165 and 166 – (This would normally be on the Centre Pages!) – Wings in the East
– Pictures of Japanese Flight Cadets Training

Pages
167 and 168 – The Centre Pages – An Advert for “The Cygnet” – A General
Aircraft Product – headed “Simple Flying”
Page 170 – Flying Wires – Air News from all Points of the Compass
(One particularly interesting item of news
is that “R.A.F. strength overseas has been further
strengthened by the addition of a new squadron (No. 94) at Aden”)
Page 172 – The World Says –
(A box in the centre of the page says “This
feature will be continued in the new publication AERONAUTICS,
with which “Popular Flying” is to be
incorporated. The first issue of
AERONAUTICS will be published at the end of July,
and
will contain articles by many people well-known in aviation circles”)
Page 175 – Avoiding the Airscrew – H. J. Wilson
(A short article about another method of
propulsion. Hot air jet
propulsion. The jet engine.)
Page 176 – More M. P. H. – W. O. Manning
(A technical article about streamlining and
drag)
Page 179 – Possibilities of Muscle – Power Flight – by “Vigilant”
(“Flying is not yet a poor man’s sport” –
“Flying can never become an everyday affair
for the multitude until someone invents an aero-bicycle
on which we could roam about the sky as
easily as we can traverse the road on an ordinary bicycle”)
Page 180 – The National Gliding Contest
(“The National Gliding Contests are held
annually for one week. This year they
are to be held at Great Hucklow, Derbyshire”)
Page 182 – Speed on the Water
(“A passenger’s account of Mr. Hubert
Scott-Paine’s recent record-breaking crossing to Cherbourg,
achieved with the aid of modified
Rolls-Royce Merlin Engines”)
Page 183 – The Use of Gears – F. J. Camm
(“The advantages and disadvantages of geared
elastic motors is interestingly discussed”)
Page 184 – The Aviation Bookshelf
(Three books are reviewed)
Page 186 – A reminder: with the
next issue, on sale at the end of July, “Popular Flying” becomes
AERONAUTICS. Further information is on
Page 149
Page 187 – An advert for Shell – “Pioneers of Modern Aviation” – featuring
C. S. Rolls
(who was the first Englishman to cross the Channel in an aeroplane and also
the first aviator to make the return journey as well.
He did both these in 1910. Later in
the same year he was killed at the Bournemouth meeting.)
Page 192 – 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 – Adverts for Gatwick Airport and Player’s Airman Navy
Cut
Back Page – An Advert for Minors Cigarettes
The first issue of Aeronautics – August 1939 - incorporating POPULAR FLYING looked like this

Click here
to see a much larger picture of the cover artwork – the artist is Howard Leigh
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