1930s

1920s, 1930s, Aerial theatre, Publications

Self-archive: ‘The meaning of Hendon’

My article, ‘The meaning of Hendon: the Royal Air Force Display, aerial theatre and the technological sublime, 1920–37’, has been accepted for publication in Historical Research (the journal of the Institute of Historical Research). I’m not sure when it will be published yet, and I can’t self-archive the post-peer-reviewed version until 24 months after publication.

Hitler's Ju 52/3m over Nuremberg, 1934
1930s, 1940s, Books, Film, Pictures

The man in the high aeroplane

Swastika Night was written by Katharine Burdekin under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. It’s a dystopian novel in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan have conquered the world and divided it between them. Nothing so original in that, you might think — except that Swastika Night was published in June 1937, before the invasion of Poland

Australian Air Squadrons Fund leaflet
1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, Aerial theatre, After 1950, Archives, Australia, Civil aviation, Ephemera, International air force, Pictures, Tools and methods

AIR in the AJCP

This is the cover of a leaflet produced in 1916 by the Australian Air Squadrons Fund, the Australian arm of the Imperial Air Flotilla which raised funds around the British Empire for presentation ‘battle-planes’ for the Royal Flying Corps. My interest in it is not so much for its own sake, though I am struck

Walter Sickert, Miss Earhart's Arrival (1932)
1930s, Art, Periodicals, Pictures

Miss Earhart’s Arrival

Walter Sickert, Miss Earhart’s Arrival (1932). A fascinating image. The occasion is Amelia Earhart’s arrival at Hanworth aerodrome on 22 May 1932, after her solo flight across the Atlantic, the first by a woman and in record time. She was already well-known as an aviator, but this feat made her a celebrity. You can see

Junkers A.35b
1930s, Aerial theatre, Books, Civil defence, Disarmament, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics

The phantom phantom air raid — II

So if there were no mystery aeroplanes over Berlin on 23 June 1933, and nobody who even saw any mystery aeroplanes, why did the German government and press say otherwise? There are three-ish reasons, that I can see. The first is the most obvious. It was strongly implied in the original English-language reports that the

1930s, Nuclear, biological, chemical, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics

The phantom phantom air raid — I

On the evening of 23 June 1933, Berlin was raided by mysterious aeroplanes of unknown origin: A number of aeroplanes, which were described as being of unidentified foreign origin, are reported to have flown over the working-class areas of the city yesterday evening, and dropped leaflets and pamphlets, in which the Government was attacked. Upon

Popular Mechanics, October 1922
1900s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Aircraft, Art, Australia, Before 1900, Civil aviation, Periodicals, Pictures, Words

The never-arriving aerial train

John Ptak asks of this cover from the October 1922 issue Popular Mechanics: ‘why?’ It’s a good question. The accompanying article doesn’t really help: Consider yourself aboard a giant airplane whose whirring propellers rapidly drive from view faint objects on the earth far below. As towns and hamlets recede in the distance you realize that

london sydney days, 1859-1952
1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Australia, Before 1900, Civil aviation, Grants, Pictures, Plots and tables, Tools and methods

Breaking the tyranny of distance

[Cross-posted at Airplay.] Australia is a long way from anywhere, even from itself. It nearly always takes a long time to get to where you want to go. Historian Geoffrey Blainey famously popularised the idea that this remoteness has shaped Australian history and culture in the title of his 1966 book, The Tyranny of Distance.

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