World War I Aeroplanes, Inc.

Skyways, The Journal of the Airplane 1920-1940 Vol 81, January 2007

Reviewed By  Brian R. Baker, IPMS# 43146

SKYWAYS, THE JOURNAL OF THE AIRPLANE 1920-1940 4 Issues/yr. $42.00 minimum. $47.00 overseas. (Plus $30.00 for overseas airmail) SKYWAYS, World War I Aeroplanes, Inc. 15 Crescent Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 USA 845-473-3679 www.skywaysjournal.org , www.ww1aero.org , or www.worldwar1aeroplanesinc.org I had seen this publication in the past, but never really seriously looked at an issue until I received a copy from the publishers for review. My immediate reaction was "Wow! What have you been missing?" Being a fan of older airplanes, even to the point of owning and operating a sixty year old Luscombe, I am naturally drawn to articles, drawings, and photos of planes of the twenties and thirties. This publication certainly has all of these. Looking at the list of people on the masthead, I can see why. Leonard Opdyke, the publisher, is well known among aircraft historians, and is the owner of the World War I Aero Bookstore. Dave Ostrowski, the editor, grew up in the St. Louis area photographing airplanes on an old 616 camera, and has amassed an extensive collection of historical material. Members of the Board of Directors include Harold Andrews and Dan Hagedorn, both noted aircraft historians. With this kind of pedigree, this magazine has to be good, and it is. The publication includes something for everyone with an interested in "Between the Wars" aviation. Beginning with an in-depth article on the Lawson Airliner and its successor, the L4 Midnight Airliner of 1919, it continues with a detailed account of the development of the Northrop Gamma, and how it evolved into the Douglas SBD Dauntless of World War II. An article on the Boeing 80 airliner follows, and although it is listed as "additional material from a previous article," it presents a lot of original material, including interior photos and excellent three view drawings. Old airplane enthusiasts will also be interested in a section dealing with current operations of airplanes equipped with Curtiss OX-5 engines, making those of us who operate more modern airplanes thankful that we don't have to oil every part of the engine before every flight. Dan Hagedorn presents the subject of the one-only Curtiss Wright Model 23, a contender for the Army's Basic Combat trainer, which was eventually produced as the North American BC-1. Following this, Ninette Heaton, a woman who flew as a teenager in the middle thirties, describes her flying career in Fleet and Waco biplanes. For modeling enthusiasts, there are articles on scratchbuilding a1/32 scale Bell YFM-1 Aircuda, with enough photos of the interior details to induce me to get out my old vacuform 1/72 scale kit of the same airplane and build it, and another on a description of some of the modeling periodicals and catalogs available on the market today. Towards the end, a "What is it?" section provides some answers, and also three photos of aircraft that I can't identify. The last section deals with photos of a restored Zenith Z-6A biplane of the early thirties. Recommendations? I will subscribe shortly. Nuff sed!

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