contents · 2020. 7. 14. · supermarine seafire was like to fly on and off a carrier 16 radiant...
TRANSCRIPT
THE AVIATION HISTORIANIssue No 4 5
3 EDITOR’S LETTER
6 AIR CORRESPONDENCE
10 TAKING THE SEAFIRE TO SEACommander David “Shorty” Hamilton recalls what the Supermarine Seafire was like to fly on and off a carrier
16 RADIANT SKIESPropulsion specialist Jakob Whitfield examines America’s disastrous Cold War efforts to harness atomic energy as a means for powering aircraft
26 AMERICAN CLASSICSClassic images from The Alpha Archive of Ford Tri-Motors in US Army, Navy and Marine Corps service
28 HAPPINESS IS . . . VECTORED THRUSTHawker Siddeley historian Chris Farara chronicles the career of G-VTOL, the company’s hardworking two-seat Harrier demonstrator
42 G-VTOL’S INDIAN SUMMERFollowing on from its history, former test pilot John Farley describes flying G-VTOL on a 1972 demo tour in India
48 OUT OF THE BLACKMichael O’Leary introduces a two-part feature on the post-war civil use of the Northrop P-61 and F-15 Reporter, starting with the Black Widow’s stint in civvie street
58 AN AIRSHIP INTERLUDE Lighter-than-air flight specialist Brian J. Turpin traces the rise and fall of Britain’s first post-First World War non-rigid airship, the Airship Development Company’s AD 1
68 KEEPING THE PEACEJan Forsgren provides an in-depth account of the 1958 aerial operations of the United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon, which fielded Harvards, Bird Dogs and Bell 47s
82 HISTORY OR HOGWASH?Mick Oakey investigates the re-emergence of a claimthat Gustave Whitehead successfully flew an aeroplanebefore the Wright Brothers — is there anything in it?
90 BEFORE & AFTERFrom Latvia to Luftwaffe: Roger Tisdale and Arvo Vercamer detail the markings of a much-travelled Gloster Gladiator
92 FLY AMERICA!In the concluding half of his two-parter on the USA’s local service airlines, David H. Stringer plots the transition from propliners to the jet age and, ultimately, the end of an era
106 THE RIVIERA TOUCHRod Simpson takes a look at Nardi’s FN.333 Riviera, a classic 1950s amphibian with typically Italian good looks
118 ARMCHAIR AVIATION
123 LOST & FOUND
124 GUN COTTONSidney Cotton is famous for his audacious spy flights over Germany — less well-known are his gun-running exploits for the Nizam of Hyderabad, as revealed by Jeff Watson
130 OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
CONTENTS Issue No 4
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