The year of reading airmindedly — VIII
Three blitzes: the German Blitz on Britain (well, London); the British Blitz on Germany; and the robot Blitz on Britain.
Books, Pictures, Reviews
1930s, Art, Books, Pictures
Sky trackin’
This is the frontispiece illustration from John E. Gurdon, The Sky Trackers (London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1931). Gurdon was an RFC ace (28 victories, all in Brisfits) and after the war took up writing aviation adventure stories so he could discharge a bankruptcy. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, noting that ‘Columbus, setting out in a
Books, Pictures, Reviews
The year of reading airmindedly — VII
Three aviation history books which have almost no actual flying between them.
1920s, 1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Periodicals, Pictures, Words
The end of ideology (in rigid airship nomenclature)
If you’ve ever read anything about the last great British rigid airships, built between 1924 and 1930 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, you will almost certainly have come across a statement to the effect that R.100 was known as the ‘capitalist’ airship and R.101 as the ‘socialist’ airship. This was because the former
Books, Pictures, Reviews
The year of reading airmindedly — VI
I think this is a first for this series: three books by past Aviation Cultures presenters!
Books, Pictures, Reviews
Marked for Death
[This review was commissioned by the Michigan War Studies Review back in 2016, but for some reason never got published. As MiWSR is now, sadly, defunct, I guess there’s no harm in putting it up here on Airminded.] James Hamilton-Paterson. Marked for Death: The First War in the Air. New York: Pegasus Books, 2016. Vanishingly
Books, Pictures, Reviews
The year of reading airmindedly — V
Object history, aircrew history, history for children.
1900s, 1910s, 1940s, Australia, Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Interviews, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Sounds
Phantom airship tales from Rat City
I’m featured in the latest episode of the podcast Tales from Rat City, which is focused on unusual and sometimes bizarre aspects of the history of Ballarat, Victoria’s third largest city (if you’ve heard of the Eureka Stockade, well, that’s where that was). It’s run by David Waldron (a historian at Federation University who co-authored
Books, Pictures, Reviews
The year of reading airmindedly — IV
Bombs, ‘Bomber’, and bombers (among other aircraft).
1930s, Civil aviation, Periodicals, Pictures
You wouldn’t read about it
Would you? It’s the summer of 1935.((Late July or early August 1935, judging from the August Popular Flying on display. I can’t quite make out the newspaper headlines but the themes (British troops? American naval policy?) could fit late July.)) You’re at Croydon Airport, waiting to board an Imperial Airways flight to Paris. But you