The Aviation Historian (No.39) Book Review

By David L. Veres

Review

Issue 39 of The Aviation Historian offers a terrific travelogue of enthralling aeronautica:

• TAKING THE WAR TO THE ENEMY. RAF Bomber Command’s pivotal 1941 expansion.
• LIGHTNING BUGS & BUFFALO HUNTERS. USAF Strategic Air Command’s use of Ryan drones for reconnaissance and “SAM-sniffer” duties in Vietnam.
• CERES: THE GODDESS FROM FISHERMANS BEND. Australia’s Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation’s Ceres agricultural aircraft derived from the legendary Wirraway multi-purpose warplane.
• VASP FLIGHT 169. Brazilian airline VASP’s intriguing February 1982 UFO incident.
• SHORTS TUCANO vs PILATUS PC-9. Replacing the RAF’s pioneering Jet Provost trainer.
• AMERICAN DOMINATION? Constructing Bristol Centaurus-engined Consolidated B-32 Dominators in the UK during WWII?
• AIR SUD KASAI. An African airline that never officially existed!
• WINGS OVER PERU: THE FAIREY SEAL. The saga of six Fairey Seals acquired by Peru in 1933.
• A LIFE IN POLITICS? Genesis of the legendary, but initially troubled de Havilland Comet.
• SWEDEN’S SECRET AIRBASES. A “war airbase” system hidden in plain sight.
• BALTIC TRIANGLES. Commercial air services in Estonia, Lavia and Lithuania following WWI.
• SUPERMARINE BY SUBMARINE. Supermarine’s novel, 1913 “slip-wing” concept.

Regardless of periodical, I rarely find all issue articles appealing. But here, every one proved enjoyable – and enlightening. And you needn’t saunter sequentially through contents.

I happily and hungrily hopped from Alan Griffith’s cool, counterfactual musings on possible British use of Convair B-32 Dominators through notes on nascent airlines in interbellum Baltic republics to riveting remarks on Sweden’s “war airbase” system off civilian roadway networks.

Or was it that simple? Read – and find out.

I then traversed Amaru Tincopa’s illuminating “Wings of Peru” installment on CAP’s Fairey Seals, longingly lingered at Vietnam drone operations, and finally strolled through everything else.

Of those, an intriguing Brazilian UFO incident and the agricultural extrapolation of my favorite Australian aircraft remain personal favorites.

Plan your own TAH 39 tour. Grab this absorbing, über-informative issue.

Photos, drawings, maps, and extended captions augment articles. And editorial commentary, readers’ letters, and book reviews enhance the effort.

Recommended!

My sincere thanks to The Aviation Historian for this review sample!