The Aviation Historian Magazine

Our cover image for TAH50 — a Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter streaking heavenwards under jet and rocket power — heralds our article by Tony Buttler FRAeS on American jet fighter engine testbeds of the 1950s, a time of rapid progress in powerplant development.

Other major features in the issue include the latest in our series on British aerial weapons, in which author Chris Gibson and technical illustrator Ian Bott assess the devastating combination that comprised the Avro Lancaster and its various bomb loads; James Kightly spotlights the distinguished aviation career of Hollywood actor James Stewart; Prof Keith Hayward FRAeS explores the convoluted politics underlying the development of the European Fighter Aircraft in the 1980s; and Edward M. Young charts the remarkable RAF flying career of Thailand’s Prince “Nicky” Varanand.

Elsewhere in TAH50 we complete our histories of Trans-Canada Air Lines, of Argentinian pilot Pedro Zanni’s ill-fated round-the-world flight attempt 100 years ago, and of the de Havilland Vampire in Rhodesian service; and we examine how the Hawker Siddeley Andover won the race to become the British military’s tactical light transport. We also recount the career and mysterious death in a flying accident in the USA in 1954 of Air Cdre Geoffrey Stephenson, CO of the RAF’s Central Fighter Establishment.

All this — and much more — awaits you in Issue 50 of The Aviation Historian, the last of our quarterly issues before we go annual in 2025.