The Aviation Historian Magazine Issue 41 Vorige editie

Remember Operation Black Buck, the audacious ultra-long-distance bombing raids by RAF Avro Vulcans on Port Stanley airfield during the Falklands War? Well, there was something even bolder in the pipeline: a secret plan for a raid on airfields in mainland Argentina, the aircraft returning via Chile or even the long way round, via islands in the Pacific. Our 41st quarterly edition of The Aviation Historian reveals the hard evidence for this remarkable plan in a detailed eight-page article by Chris Gibson. Also in the issue, we begin a new series in which ace technical artist Ian Bott gets “under the bonnet” of some of the many and varied aerial weapons developed by the British. To kick off the series, he teams up with Hawker Typhoon specialist Matt Bone to examine the nuts and bolts of the RP-3 rocket projectile. Plus: the USA’s use of drone aircraft (including unmanned B-17 Flying Fortresses!) during post-WW2 atomic weapons testing; the political background to the de Havilland Comet airliner; and how French test pilots came to the UK to fly the Short SC.1 in order to gain experience for their own country’s jump-jet programme. All this, and much more, is illustrated with high-quality archive photographs and bespoke artwork.