Registrations are now open for Print the Legend, the next Aviation Cultures Spotlight event, which will be held online across 27 and 28 February 2026 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time; correct for your own timezone). This is a free event, but you do need to register beforehand.
Print the Legend promises to be both fun and insightful, taking its inspiration from the famous line in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend’. In aviation history, that injunction has been taken to heart rather too frequently, whether at the time or later. That doesn’t mean the legends are wrong, necessarily, but they do need to be questioned rather than just accepted. And that is just what this Spotlight will do.
I’ll be presenting in the second session, on the evening of 27 February. I’m honoured to be speaking alongside Alessandro Pesaro, Ian Castle, and Dan Ellis, who will be talking about Pippo, von Buttlar, and scarecrow flares, respectively. I’ll be reprising and updating my ‘When was the Red Baron?’ and ‘The Red Knight rises’ posts, which I wrote a few years ago but otherwise never did much with.
Image source: Leader (Melbourne), 7 August 1915, 7.
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