THE AEROPLANE

(September 14^th 1945)

Front cover:

Advert:  The Pinnacle Nut – The Finest All-Metal Self Locking Nut In The World

In this issue:

Air-Sea Rescue  (An editorial predicting the importance and potential development of air-sea rescue)

Matters Of Moment  (Mosquito’s Atlantic record flight, Air Force Pageant at the Albert Hall, The RAF will be “At Home”, The Bombing Of Japan, Air affairs in Parliament, RAF prisoners in the Far East, The colour plate in this issue – painting by Frank Wootton; see below, Airborne newspapers as a war weapon, New Coastal Command group, Bristol fashions – 1945, A new Taylorcraft, Two Vickers appointments, Germans in Hyde Park.  Includes a lovely photograph of a Fairey Firefly I in flight and photographs of the Arado Ar 234c and the Junkers Ju 287 prototype)

Air Transport  (The case for the passenger, Zero hour on the North Atlantic, Australian government air services?, The England-Australia air route, Douglas DC-7 first flight, Southampton-Channel Islands service reopened, Percival Proctors for Denmark, Kindley Field – Bermuda, Aeromotor overhauls in US.  Includes photographs of General de Gaulle in front of his personal Avro York, a Channel Islands Airways’ DH Rapide and Austin 10 cars being loaded on an Avro York)

News Of The Week  (The attack on Nagasaki, the Luscombe Silvaire 8E, A new type parachute, Approximately 4,000 Japanese aircraft.  Includes photographs of the Me 8-263 Komet and the Bristol Beaufort)

One Of The Few – I  (The 1^st of four instalments of a diary written by a 20 year old fighter pilot in the form of letters to his father.  This is an excellent first-hand account of the early air-to-air fighting of the war which is very well described by the author)

The Blackburn Cirrus Aero-Engines  (A 2-page review of this series of engines which includes a table showing the general specification of each and a lovely large photograph of the Taylorcraft Auster J.1 civil type)

Reproduction Of A Painting By Frank Wootton  (A double-page in colour of Typhoons taking-off from a Normandy airstrip to attack enemy armour in the Falaise “pocket”)

A Bird’s Eye View Of The Enemy  (A 3-page article describing the importance and use of photographic intelligence during the war.  As well as a description of aircraft used there is a nice photo of a Spitfire P.R. Mk XIX in front of a Lancaster III being converted to air photography)

Meteor  (A lovely 2-page well-illustrated review of the Meteor in service with Nos. 74 and 245 Squadrons.  Includes detail photographs in addition to a sequence of photographs of Meteors taking off)

Japanese Aircraft  (A one-page photo-montage of a variety of Japanese aircraft types accompanied by a brief description of each.  Oscar 1, Jack 1-1, Frank 1, Norm 1-1, Rex 1-1, Kate, Jill and the Mitsubishi Ku 8 military transport glider)

German Aeronautical Development – 1  (A review of information released by the Air Ministry on German aircraft development and research.  This article describes the Junkers Jumo 004, the BMW 003, the Heinkel-Hirth He 011 and the Daimler Benz 007 turbo jet units together with the liquid rocket unit and power boosting systems.  Includes photographs of each of the turbo-jet units with a cutaway of the Jumo 004B)

The Royal Air Force  (The Roll Of Honour – The 538^th Casualty List, plus photos of a Tempest Mark I and Mosquito FB VIs in Burma)

Adverts include:  the Blackburn Cirrus, Perkins Diesel Engines, the Pioneer Parachute Company Inc., Fairey Aviation, the Napier Sabre, Rolls-Royce Jet Propulsion Engines, the Gloster Meteor, the Avro Lincoln, the Schermuly Pistol Rocket Apparatus Limited., the D.H. Dove (colour), the Decca Navigator, Taylorcraft Auster and the Bristol Centaurus

This magazine is in very good overall condition considering its age with no torn, creased or marked pages.  The staples are heavily rusted, and the cover page is loose from the staples although all other pages are secure.  The front cover shows wear in the form of light rubbing to the edges and age-related discolouration to the top edge (see photograph).