By the mid 1930s the development of fast medium-range airliners had settled on the twin engine, all metal monoplane format. The requirements of different national airlines led to slight variations but for an airline like Air France with a network of routes across Europe, the requirement was similar to a requirement in the United States…

At the end of World War II the French government decided to develop light aviation in a big way, an action also taken by many other governments including Australia’s. As a first step the government purchased a large number of ex-war Tiger Moths and Magisters very cheaply that it passed on to flying schools and…

Back in the mists of time – probably the early 1960s – I received a book about aeroplanes and a picture in it that captured my imagination was of a formation of Blue Angels F11Fs. The aeroplane itself looked the epitome of streamlining and speed with no compromises. This may well have been the beginning…

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I want to make something simple that just falls together and doesn’t require a difficult paint scheme. Thus it was that I decided to make something by one of the main kit making companies, and something flown by the US Navy. Almost at random I chose the Grumman…

The Grumman F8F was a highly successful attempt to put the most powerful engine possible into the smallest, lightest and most manoeuvreable airframe that could be designed around it. It was the follow-up to Grumman’s highly successful F6F Hellcat that had done so much to wrest control of the air over the Pacific Ocean from…

In 1923 the Communist Party in Italy was declared illegal and the Italian aircraft designer, Roberto Bartini, moved to the Soviet Union. He worked for the aviation detachment of the Red Army for some years but his creative talent saw him in charge of his own design group by 1930. His first design, a single…

In the 1950s military planners on both sides of the iron-curtain turned their attention to designing weapons systems capable of intercepting and destroying enemy supersonic bombers armed with nuclear weapons before they could deliver their payloads. One of the systems developed on both sides was an interceptor capable of flying long ranges at high speed…

By the mid 1930s most major aeroplane making nations were working on long range passenger carrying flying boats to equip their ‘flag-carrying’ airlines. For Britain and her dominions it was the Short Empire Class flying boats that also equipped Qantas Empire Airways from 1938. The flying boat had many advantages, primarily they did not need…

Following the invention of radar just before the beginning of World War II it became increasingly difficult for warplanes to reach their targets unannounced. By the end of the war radar was an important weapon in defence against air attacks and thereafter radar, in league with air defence weaponry, made defence against air attacks more…

After World War II the airliner market was flooded with an almost endless supply of extremely cheap Douglas DC-3/C-47s. They made it possible for new airlines to begin flying and established airlines to expand rapidly to fill the growth in air services in the late 1940s and early 1950s. However, as time passed these old…

Even while Boeing was developing its long range 707 airliner in the mid 1950s it saw the need for a shorter range passenger jet to serve the United States domestic market on routes as long as trans-continental New York-Los Angeles flights. Studies led to the development of a three engined jet transport using many components…