Stepping back from the brink

Recent Articles

• Turnabout is fair play

  18 November 2008 in 1940s, Aircraft, Pictures

  OK, so I’ve poked a bit of fun at French aircraft design here from time to time, with a post on the fugliest aircraft of the Third Republic and another recoiling in horror at the aeroplane which should not be. But turnabout is fair play, and the British aviation industry has had plenty of shockers [...]

• Flight’s message to the politicians

  11 November 2008 in 1910s, Periodicals, Phantom airships and other panics, Quotes, Rumours

  In contrast to the King’s message to the RAF, Flight’s reaction to the end of the war, in the same issue of 14 November 1918, seems rather grumpy. It’s true that the editorial section is rounded off, on p. 1274 (source), by a short section which expresses a certain amount of glee at the news [...]

• The King’s message to the Royal Air Force

  11 November 2008 in 1910s, Periodicals, Pictures, Quotes

  It’s 90 years to the day since the guns fell silent, and the bombs stopped falling. I don’t feel that I have anything particularly insightful to say, so here’s how Flight marked the occasion, by publishing the King’s message to the RAF on its front page, 14 November 1918, p. 1270 (source):

  THE KING’S MESSAGE
  TO THE [...]

• Goodbye, Zeta Reticuli

  5 November 2008 in Other, Periodicals, Space

  I’ve got an article in the current (November 2008) issue of Fortean Times (named, of course, after Charles Fort). It’s not at all airminded, it’s not really historical either — it has more to do with my shady astrophysicist past. It’s about the famous Betty and Barney Hill abduction incident in New Hampshire in 1961 [...]

• The most important decision of the year …

  4 November 2008 in Blogging

  … is who to nominate for the 2008 Cliopatria Awards for the best history blogging of the year. (Why, what did you think I meant?) There are six categories: best group blog, best individual blog, best new blog, best post, best series of posts, and best writer. Nominations close at the end of November and [...]