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The Aviation Historian
The modern journal of classic aeroplanes and the history of flying
®
IMPERIAL AIRWAYS: the 1930s
issue
A GOLDEN AGE?
24
2
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
Issue No 24
Published quarterly by:
The Aviation Historian
PO Box 962
Horsham RH12 9PP
United Kingdom
Subscribe at:
www.theaviationhistorian.com
(published July 15, 2018)
The Aviation Historian
The modern journal of classic aeroplanes and the history of flying
®
ISSUE NUMBER 24
TM
Editor’s Letter
HELLO AND A very warm welcome to
TAH24
— or perhaps
that should be “Ciao
e un caloroso benvenuto”,
as this issue has
a distinct Italian flavour. It contains the most in-depth account
yet published in English of Italy’s wartime attempt to connect
Rome with the capital of its Axis partner, Japan; and Amaru
Tincopa’s fascinating chronicle of the little-loved Italian Breda
Ba.65 in Chilean service. Both articles benefited enormously
from the help of Editorial Board member Gregory Alegi,
whose efforts in this issue went far beyond the call of duty,
and for whose sterling assistance I am extremely grateful.
This issue also sees the return of the John Stroud Archive
(no relation!) after a brief intermission. We’ve always felt a
particular affinity with John here at
TAH,
not least because
TAH
our Managing Editor, Mick Oakey, works daily at the very
desk at which John produced much of his life’s work, and
which was previously owned by
The Aeroplane’s
Founding
Editor, C.G. Grey. Mick explains:
“I had heard rumours that John had once owned ‘CGG’s’
desk, so I asked him. He said he had got it from CGG a few
years before the latter’s death in 1953, and, what’s more, he
still owned it and used it in his tiny cottage in Scotland. I
visited him in 2004; it must have been around then that John
said he planned to leave the desk to me in his will. Sure
enough, when he died in 2007, he had bequeathed it to me.
“I refurbished it with a good dose of beeswax polish, and
now use it every day. Whenever I open one of its drawers I can
still catch a whiff of John’s pungent cigarette-smoke, and see
the occasional ink-stain from CGG’s pungent pen.”
We’re honoured to be able to trace a direct line from C.G. Grey
through John Stroud to
TAH
— distinguished company indeed!
Nick Stroud
e-mail nickstroud@theaviationhistorian.com
Mick Oakey
e-mail mickoakey@theaviationhistorian.com
EDITOR
MANAGING EDITOR
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Amanda Stroud
Lynn Oakey
FINANCE MANAGER
For all telephone enquiries:
tel +44 (0)7572 237737 (mobile number)
Gregory Alegi, Dr David Baker, Ian Bott,
Robert Forsyth, Juanita Franzi, Dr Richard
P. Hallion, Philip Jarrett HonCRAeS,
Colin A. Owers, David H. Stringer,
Julian Temple, Capt Dacre Watson
EDITORIAL BOARD
David Siddall Multimedia
www.davidsiddall.com
Published quarterly by
The Aviation Historian,
PO Box 962, Horsham RH12 9PP, United Kingdom
©
The Aviation Historian
2018
ISSN 2051-1930 (print)
ISSN 2051-7602 (digital)
While every care will be taken with material
submitted to
The Aviation Historian,
no responsibility
can be accepted for loss or damage. Opinions
expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect
those of the Editor. This periodical must not, without the
written consent of the publishers first being given, be
lent, sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of in a
mutilated condition or in any unauthorised cover by way
of trade or annexed or as part of any publication or
advertising literary or pictorial matter whatsoever.
WEBMASTER
If you do not wish to keep your copy of
The Aviation Historian
(impossible to imagine, we know),
please ensure you recycle it using an appropriate facility.
Printed in the UK by
The Magazine Printing Company
using only paper from FSC/PEFC suppliers
www.magprint.co.uk
FRONT COVER
The golden age of airline flying — or was it? This
glamorous group beside a Short Scylla bound for Paris may think
so, but was Imperial Airways’ fleet fit for purpose? See pages 10–22.
BACK COVER
A two-Buccaneer formation over Scotland, led by Gp
Capt Tom Eeles, who reveals in this issue what the type was like to fly.
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
MADE IN BRITAIN
Issue No 24
3
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TAh
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4
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
Issue No 24
24
CONTENTS
66
124
Issue No 24
3
EDITOR’S LETTER
6
AIR CORRESPONDENCE
10
IMPERIAL AIRWAYS: A CAUSE FOR CONCERN?
Using previously unseen documents from the Royal Aero
Club Trust archives, Ralph Pegram argues that the 1930s
were not such a “golden age” for Imperial Airways; he also
reveals some unusual designs built to the troubled airline’s
specifications, but which remained on the drawing board
24
STRATOJETS IN BLIGHTY
In 1953 the UK had its first encounters with the Boeing
B-47; Robert Hopkins III and C. Mike Habermehl detail the
USAF’s first three Stratojet deployments to Britain
34
THE WORLD’S FIRST AERONAUTICAL EXHIBITION
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first aero-
nautical exhibition to be held anywhere in the world, at the
Crystal Palace in South London, as Philip Jarrett relates
44
THE ROME–TOKYO EXPRESS
In the first article in a new three-part chronological series
on the wartime use of air transport by the Axis forces — or
lack thereof — Ray Flude and Gregory Alegi take a look at
the Italians’ attempt to link Rome and Tokyo in 1942
94
56
VIKINGS IN AFRICA
The John Stroud Archive returns with a trip from the UK
down to East Africa and back in a Vickers Viking, with
Nick Stroud (no relation!) as your guide
66
BRUTE FORCE & INNOVATION
In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the first flight of
the Blackburn Buccaneer, Gp Capt Tom Eeles, who flew
both variants for the Fleet Air Arm and RAF, puts us in the
cockpit of the brawny “banana jet”
76
MARKED BY MISFORTUNE
South American aviation specialist Amaru Tincopa profiles
the career of the little-loved Breda Ba.65 ground-attack
monoplane in service with the Fuerza Aérea de Chile
34
44
86
BAMBOO BIRDS & OTHER RARE SPECIES
Indigenous aircraft design in the Philippines has met with
limited success, but several light aircraft were developed
there during the 1950s and 1960s, as Nick Stroud explains
94
THE VISCOUNT COMES TO AMERICA Pt 1
Airline historian David H. Stringer opens his series on the
three American airlines which bought the Vickers Viscount
direct from the manufacturer with the first — and arguably
the most controversial — Capital Airlines
104
SHCHERBAKOV’S FORGOTTEN WORKHORSE
One of the most useful transports in the Soviet Air Force’s
wartime inventory — and probably the least-known — is
the Shcherbakov Shche-2, as Nikolay Yakubovich relates
112
PERFECT 10
10
Continuing his series on the often thorny issue of naming
aircraft in RAF service, Chris Gibson examines the official
files to find out why the VC10 became the . . . VC10
118
ARMCHAIR AVIATION
123
LOST & FOUND
124
SWEDEN’S GHOST ROCKETS
In the summer of 1946 Sweden became the focus of a
series of “ghost rocket” attacks. Were they Russian test
weapons? UFOs? Lennart Andersson investigates . . .
130
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
Issue No 24
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
5

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