Aeroplane Monthly

Grapevine - Michael Oakey's monthly review of happenings in the aircraft preservation world
Nothing ventured...No 5 - Philip Janet describes the Supermarine Type 322 "Dumbo" No shots please, we're British - Part 1 Roger Anthoine begins a new series tracing the stories of RAF aircraft and crews which forced- landed in neutral Switzerland during World War Two
Take a card - No 5 - Alec Lumsden continues his series on the handling of wartime aircraft with the much-maligned Blackburn Botha
The origins of aerial bombardment — Part 9 - Harry Woodman continues his series with an examination of the bombs and bomb-sights available to British, French and German forces at the beginning of World War One
Personal album — military - Photographs of post-war RAF de Havilland Mosquitoes taken by Richard Livermore
Rawdon's unwanted trainer - Howard Levy reports from Pennsylvania on a sheep in wolf's clothing
Flying for fun — Part 3 - Wg Cdr Jack Meadows DFC AFC AE recalls the frustration of RAF Volunteer Reserve inactivity just after the outbreak of World War Two, and his long-awaited posting to a Service Flying Training School
... so few - Bill Gunston announces the publication of probably the world's most expensive new book (£1.600 per copy), one of which has been reserved as a prize in a forthcoming Aeroplane Monthly competition
Skywriters
Spitfire notebook — Part 4 - The one-off Supermarine Speed Spitfire, adapted from a Mk I air frame in 1937-38 for an attempt on the World Landplane Speed Record
Personal album — civil - Air-to-air photographs of post-war civil aircraft from the albums of the late E. J. Riding
"CAF's son-of-a-bitch 2nd class" - Chuck Sloat reports from Texas on the Confederate Air Force's unique airworthy Curtiss SB2C Helldiver
Czech Fifties — Part 1 - Pavel Kucera opens a two-part article on Czechoslovakia's de Havil- land D.H.50s, which played a vital part in the development of the country's air transport during the Twenties
Preservation profile - This month's subject is the world's best known Auster AOP.9— XR241
Wings of peace - John Stroud continues his series on between-the-wars European airliners with the ANT monoplanes
Lost weekend — Part 1 - In the summer of 1959 a UK printing-trade strike meant that the annual National Air Races were never fully reported in the aviation Press. D. P. Sparkes. who was at the time a 16yr-old volunteer helping the race organisers at Baginton, sets the record straight at last

FRONT COVER: Three aircraft from the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California, which held a major auction of aircraft and memorabilia during May. In the foreground is the North American T-28B. flown by Chuck Smith: accompanying it are Bruce Lockwood in the P-51D Mustang and Alan Preston in Lockheed P-38 Lightning N5596V, which sold at the auction for $1.5 million (E909.090)