From the excellent San Francisco Airport Aviation Museum and Library comes this neat 2013 exhibition catalogue. It serves as an insight to how an assemblage of aviation ephemera and collectables can pull together a good story of a now vanished age, with echoes of some elements of today’s airline experience, but many more differences. The…
Category: Models
It’s the Wrong Stripes!
Aircraft markings seem to be rather a challenge to understand at times, and are easily misinterpreted. They are a design and aesthetic choice, as well as being a political recognition and heraldry concept as well. This ‘executive desktop model’ made from mahogany will set you back around US $300 on eBay. It’s not bad, but…
Which Concorde?
The final shape for the Concorde’s wing was an ogee delta, and when viewed closely is a complex arrangement, including a downturned leading edge lip, as well as the reflexed leading edge line seen in plan view. But it wasn’t the only option, as seen here, in this row of model shapes considered by the…
Stuka! One – Shiny
Here’s something you don’t see every day. A full size model (FSM) replica of the iconic German Blitzkrieg too the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber. Here in the sculpture garden of Burghley House, in the UK. As reported recently in Militaria & History, it ‘is called Down Two Earth and is an 11m…
Credible Comet?
These ‘trench art’ ashtrays are relatively common in junk shops and antique shops. This is to a degree because most of them are modern made, and vary enormously between the very convincing, and the dubious rubbish. This represents the pre-war de Havilland DH 88 Comet racer, reasonably convincingly though the casting as usual lacks credibility…
Tintin At Ninety
Today*, the immortal cartoon character Tintin is ninety years old, as it’s ninety years since he first appeared in print. A few years ago, a series of aircraft and cars, each accompanied by a character from the books was released. As well as a number that are iconic and crucial to the plots, a few…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 