Today’s posters follow yesterday’s poster about building the aircraft – here it’s about missing parts. Delays in manufacture were a major issue during the Second World War, and while a huge number of aircraft (among other weapons and equipment) were recycled, there were delays and issues there too. So here we have two Allied powers…
Category: Ephemera
Fair Flak
Today we have a children’s board game. The boxtop is pretty clear, it’s a Nazi German anti-aircraft game. Entitled ‘Adler Luftverteidigungsspiel’ (Eagles Air Defence Game) the box depicts a German 88mm Flak gun shooting down a British Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV (a favourite ‘target’ of German propaganda). The story, thanks to Board Game Geeks website: ‘This…
Card Game Biplane
Lots of games and toys have representative ‘aeroplanes’ within them. Here’s one for the App Solitare by Mobility Ware from my phone. This is a biplane (so extra points) and while it ‘cheats’ by changing the dimensions of some cards to fill some bits of the structure, I think it captures the spirit of both…
Sunset Walrus
HMS Sheffield’s Supermarine Walrus amphibian alighting in Hong Kong harbour, 1938, notes the caption in Roy Huxley’s painting for the boxtop of the Matchbox 1/72 kit. A beautifully evocative, accurate image. James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer. Internet find.
Hell Dogs Over England
In the current (September 2019) issue of Aeroplane Monthly, here, artist Ian Bott and I have out latest ‘Briefing File’ feature on the defences against the V-1 bomb in 1944. While researching the history, it became evident that the comfort of hindsight has stripped away the fact that at the time, no-one really knew what…
WAAF in Hebrew
Here’s a remarkable item, a 9 x 21 cm recruitment brochure for the British Woman’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) of the Second World War in Hebrew, aimed at a Jewish audience. Found on e-Bay, and passed onto me by Kiran Toor, the sales details give the background: “The Yishuv [Jewish community in the land of…
Inside the Eagle
Inspired by a discussion on Twitter, here’s a selection of aircraft cutaway artwork, mainly from the British children’s magazine ‘Eagle’ most famous for the cartoon strip ‘Dan Dare’. [It was the era of the straight leading edge Avro Vulcan B1, and the carrier HMS Eagle.] Dare aside, the other highlight for most in the magazine…
ANA DC Flyer
A lovely piece of airline ephemera today. An Australian National Airways (ANA) Douglas DC-3 fold-out paper promotional item, offered by the Josef Lebovic Gallery here as part of a set. It consist of a perspective painting of a DC-3 airliner in blue, with a red overprint featuring the Royal Mail cipher and the ANA tail…
Thake’s Shapes
Eric Thake (see a brief earlier post here) was an Australian official war artist working with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in the latter part of the Pacific War. Unlike many other war artists, he chose to make a significant proportion of his formal, main output as depictions of aircraft wreckage. Almost uniquely, Thake…
Metal Fist Thunderbolt
Today the cover of a pilot’s type instructional manual, here the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. What makes it of interest is the decision to create a remarkable mailed fist background to the profile drawing of the machine. James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer. Via Matt Savage, Mach One Photography.
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 