An exciting magazine cover today. I picked it because it’s rare to see any major feature of a Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b (the ‘Fee’) but it’s fun for other reasons too. The artwork is by Vic Prezio for Air War Stories No. 3, published by Dell, from March – May 1965. In 1965 there were…
Category: Magazines
Unrepeatable Emett Offer
Today a 1952 cartoon from Rowland Emett. Little known nowadays, Frederick Rowland Emett OBE was an English cartoonist and constructor of whimsical kinetic sculpture, some of which survives in use today. He was a British institution, his high point being the ‘Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway’, a real railway built for the 1951…
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…
Hardy Coton Vimy
Today we have a pair of artworks on the Vickers Vimy, an aircraft type designed for the Great War, but made a name as a record setter worldwide. The first image is by the late, great aviation artist Wilf Hardy, a particular favourite painter of myself and my Aeroplane Monthly colleague Ian Bott. A 450mm…
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…
The World’s Your Westland
A magazine advertisement today, featuring a Westland Whirlwind helicopter. But more it’s a classic ‘big sky, small world’ image, one which comes up again and again as a trope, and we’ll see another tomorrow. Aeronautically, it’s a strong advert, pulling a ‘global’ reach globe together with the groundcrew man signalling the helicopter to come in…
Love Your Cobra
Today’s magazine cover. The focus is obviously on the young woman, but the story is her flying outfit and the aircraft behind – it’s Bell P-39 Airacobra time! Evidently a wartime American magazine featuring one of the Women’s Air Service Pilots (WASPs) ferrying military aircraft in World War Two. Love it. James Kightly, Vintage Aero…
Back To The Old Drawing Board
It’s exactly the middle of the year, so today we have one of the items that inspired the idea for the blog. There’s several stories, so settle in… “Well, Back To The Old Drawing Board” by Peter Arno, first published in the March 1, 1941 issue of New Yorker magazine. It’s a remarkable cartoon, and…
Cross Lightning
A painting by the remarkable Roy Cross (later well known for his Airfix kit box art) of the English Electric P-1B, later developed into the Lightning fighter, and advertising the Rolls Royce Avon engine. (Linguistically the text is also an example of words concatenating over time. Then ‘turbo jet’, now ‘turbojet’.) Used as a magazine…
Tidy Bombing
An Argentine cartoon from ‘Quino’; or Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón. It’s a great visual gag, worked through in detail. The aircraft connection? The picture on the wall is, of course ‘Guernica’, by Pablo Picasso, the searing indictment of Fascist bombing, by Italian and German aircraft of civilians in the Spanish Civil War. The painting, of…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 