One hundred years ago, less a few days, a police constable named Wright saw two aeroplanes flying over Nyang in the Mallee, in north-western Victoria. There is no longer any such place — it, or at least its station, was renamed Torrita (above) in 1921 — and nor were there any aeroplanes. Or at least, […]
This is the cover of the November 1937 issue of an American pulp magazine called Dare-Devil Aces. I vaguely knew about the existence of these aviation adventure magazines, or air pulps, but I’d assumed they were filled with stories of chivalric air combat of the Great War. Many undoubtedly were, but that’s not what this
The State Library of Queensland identifies this image as ‘R.A.A.F. Mosquito bombers, ca. 1945′; I suspect it’s from a RAAF march and flypast put on for the Third Victory Loan in the centre of Brisbane on 6 April 1945. On that occasion, according to the Courier-Mail, The veteran Lancaster bomber ‘G. for George,’ will lead
This photo purportedly shows a British military aeroplane dropping leaflets on the streets of Coventry in early December 1917. I suspect it’s a fake, a composite, or else it’s a bit odd that nobody seems to have noticed all that horsepower roaring just overhead.1 But the event it shows did happen. According to the Daily
Things have been a bit quiet here lately, which I hope will change soon. But I haven’t been entirely inactive in blogging terms: I’ve written a guest post on the construction of authority in early British aviation for the German Historical Institute’s History of Knowledge blog. The history of knowledge is a newish historiographical endeavour,
Above is a pair of stereo photos kindly sent to me by Tim Lees, who found them in his father’s collection. There’s a slight mystery as to the occasion. The label at the top reads ‘Hendon – July ’28’, which suggests they were taken at the RAF Display at Hendon in 1928, but that year
In an earlier series of posts I discussed Australia’s first airship, the White Australia, which flew in 1914. It turns out that there was an earlier Australian airship, of a sort: the Airem Scarem. Indeed, according to a 1907 newspaper advertisement it was the ‘First Airship below the line’ (equator, presumably). From the above photo,
Here in Australia, yesterday, the first Sunday in June, was Bomber Command Commemorative Day. The occasion was marked with ceremonies in most state capitals. The major event, at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra, spanned the whole weekend and included a flypast by a RAAF Hornet and a wreathlaying ceremony, which remarkably is claimed
Some big news. Today the Australian Research Council (ARC) announced that it is funding Linkage Project LP160101232, ‘Heritage of the air: how aviation transformed Australia’ to the amount of $440,000 over three years, with financial and/or in-kind contributions from Airservices Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the Civil Aviation Historical Society, and the SFO Museum.
I recently learned that Adelaide has a suburb called Hendon. Naturally, I wondered if there was a connection to the Hendon, the most important site for aerial theatre in Britain both before and after the First World War. And the answer is: yes!
