Journal Report: Onward and Upward
Pre-production work on Journal 53-1 (Spring 2015) and Journal 53-2 (Summer 2015) are nearly complete. This has been interleaved with backburner work on articles for the other two editions of this year, as well as the ongoing intake and resource collection (i.e. additional, usually photographic, materials) activity towards future CAHS Journals.
Depending on how our printer’s scheduling works out for the printing, binding, and mailing parts of the process, both may end up being mailed together as did the previous two editions. If not, they will not be too far apart as separate mailings.
Journal 53-1 resumes the Great War aviation theme started in 2014 with Michael Deal’s “Newfoundlanders and the Allied Air Forces of the First World War”. I found it surprising that nearly three dozen young men with roots (some less permanent than others) in the tiny island dominion served in either the Royal Flying Corps, the Royal Naval Air Service, or that late-war amalgamation of the two, the Royal Air Force. Each is afforded his own concise biography in this account. They were an eclectic bunch: two the sons of a Swedish baron(!), many the sons of merchants, and some of undocumented heredity; many became aeroplane pilots, some observers, one an airship pilot, and another a physician; some did not survive the war, many left the service after the war, while a small number went on to notable careers in either civilian or military aviation.
“Eclectic” also comes to mind after reading “Domina Jalbert: Inventor of Legendary Status”. The range of projects Jalbert worked on during his career ranged from kites and barrage balloons, to parafoils large enough to sail NASA’s X-38 test vehicle back to gentle desert landings. As is often the case with author Pierre Thiffault’s contributions to our Journal, this biographical account may be seen to float on the fringes of “hard core aviation history” – but it is undoubtedly a good fit. While he did fly actual aeroplanes for only a few years, Jalbert and his inventions are very much the stuff of a pioneer-to-patron aviation industry kind of story.
Gord McNulty is another long-time CAHS Member, and occasional contributor, returning to our pages with “Classic Dart Model G Being Restored to Fly Again”. This brief but interesting piece has fellow CAHS Member Russ Norman’s restoration of a rare 1930s-era sports aircraft at its core, with a good measure of the type’s history woven in.
Finally, this edition picks the Canadair Tutor chronicle back up, at part 4, on the Air Force’s CL-41A / CT-114 programme. This installment features the abundance of rarely seen, richly captioned photos we’ve come to expect of the series. This is well matched with the level of detail presented in the text. Production refinements (compared to the development prototypes covered previously) on the way to RCAF service, improvements over the span of its service life, and the service itself through to eventual retirement from its primary role are all covered here. The lengthy career of our nation’s homegrown little trainer. It is hard to imagine that there is more to follow, but author Bill Upton is not quite done yet. Other installments are in layout as you read this.
Meanwhile, here’s an interesting find of Manfred von Richthofen footage forwarded to me recently by CAHS Journal author (and new member!) Atholl Sutherland Brown, in connection with his two-part article on First World War aces that we published in 2014. To view the video, click here.
With thanks!
Terry