The Aviation Historian – January 2019

Our cover story this time features a rare beast — test pilot Wing Commander James Addams, a Brit who was posted to California in 1938, played a major role in evaluating American aircraft for adoption by the RAF, and was instrumental in rejecting the Lockheed P-38 Lightning for British use. More rarities are explored in Dassault’s X-files, by Tony Buttler, who reveals how in the 1950s the French manufacturer modified production aircraft to create an exotic variety of new prototypes; and in the second part of our review of the US Navy’s post-war concept of using waterborne aircraft to create a nuclear-capable strike force. Elsewhere we present photographs of RFC/RAF flying training at Montrose in 1917–18, and an epic of perseverance in the face of impossible odds — the 1920–23 attempts by Sidney Cotton (who invented the Sidcot flying suit) to make a success of seal-spotting in remote Newfoundland. We also join Flight journalist Mike Hirst to learn how his “scoop” back-seat ride in the RAF’s first Panavia Tornado didn’t quite go to plan; and, complete the story of the RAF Far East Flight’s tour to Australia in 1927–28. Also in this issue, we examine how the USA’s Northeast Airlines adopted the Vickers Viscount; how politics affected the battle for supremacy between the Avro 748 and the Handley Page Dart Herald; how Germany failed to create an air link to Japan in WW2, and how the Curtiss Hawk 75 fared in Peruvian service. All this, and much more, is illustrated with high-quality archive photographs and bespoke artwork.