3 editor`s letter 6 air correspondence 10 taking the seafire to sea 16

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CONTENTS
Issue No 4
3 EDITOR’S LETTER
6 AIR CORRESPONDENCE
10 TAKING THE SEAFIRE TO SEA
Commander David “Shorty” Hamilton recalls what the
Supermarine Seafire was like to fly on and off a carrier
16 RADIANT SKIES
Propulsion specialist Jakob Whitfield examines America’s
disastrous Cold War efforts to harness atomic energy as a
means for powering aircraft
26 AMERICAN CLASSICS
Classic images from The Alpha Archive of Ford Tri-Motors in
US Army, Navy and Marine Corps service
28 HAPPINESS IS . . . VECTORED THRUST
Hawker Siddeley historian Chris Farara chronicles the
career of G-VTOL, the company’s hardworking two-seat
Harrier demonstrator
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58
42 G-VTOL’S INDIAN SUMMER
Following on from its history, former test pilot John Farley
describes flying G-VTOL on a 1972 demo tour in India
48 OUT OF THE BLACK
Michael O’Leary introduces a two-part feature on the
post-war civil use of the Northrop P-61 and F-15 Reporter,
starting with the Black Widow’s stint in civvie street
58 AN AIRSHIP INTERLUDE
Lighter-than-air flight specialist Brian J. Turpin traces the
rise and fall of Britain’s first post-First World War non-rigid
airship, the Airship Development Company’s AD 1
68 KEEPING THE PEACE
92
Jan Forsgren provides an in-depth account of the 1958
aerial operations of the United Nations Observation Group
in Lebanon, which fielded Harvards, Bird Dogs and Bell 47s
82 HISTORY OR HOGWASH?
82
Mick Oakey investigates the re-emergence of a claim
that Gustave Whitehead successfully flew an aeroplane
before the Wright Brothers — is there anything in it?
90 BEFORE & AFTER
From Latvia to Luftwaffe: Roger Tisdale and Arvo Vercamer
detail the markings of a much-travelled Gloster Gladiator
92 FLY AMERICA!
In the concluding half of his two-parter on the USA’s local
service airlines, David H. Stringer plots the transition from
propliners to the jet age and, ultimately, the end of an era
10
106 THE RIVIERA TOUCH
Rod Simpson takes a look at Nardi’s FN.333 Riviera, a
classic 1950s amphibian with typically Italian good looks
118 ARMCHAIR AVIATION
123 LOST & FOUND
124 GUN COTTON
Sidney Cotton is famous for his audacious spy flights over
Germany — less well-known are his gun-running exploits
for the Nizam of Hyderabad, as revealed by Jeff Watson
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Issue No 4
130 OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
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