WWI Aero
The Journal of the Early Aeroplane
No. 198, November 2007

By Jim Schubert

It is a very great relief to fans of WWI Aero to see this issue. Leonard E. Opdycke, founder, publisher and editor, announced he was resigning in his editorial in the previous issue. This raised serious fears about the future of this journal and its sister quarterly, Skyways. The board of directors of WWI Aero have risen to the occasion, appointed Dave Ostrowski, editor of Skyways, as acting editor and produced the best issue of WWI Aero ever. The paper used is now a high quality, heavy, glossy stock, the printing is of much higher quality, the plethora of accursed sideways pages is gone and it now has a glued spine binding rather than the old two staples. I am given to understand both journals will now seek to obtain more paid advertising to generate revenue, which the many exchange ads do not. The board has also moved towards making it possible to subscribe on-line - it is now possible to subscribe to both WWI Aero and Skyways using Paypal; details are set out on the web site linked below.

That’s the big, good, news. The rest of the story is that the content of this new-look WWI Aero is, at the least, up to what we have come to expect. A beautiful, computer-generated scene of two RFC Nie 17s by Ted Williams titled “Mates” graces the doublewide, wrap-around cover. Lead articles discuss wing-warping on S. F. Cody’s 1908 British flying machine, give us a pictorial report on the Russian air fleet of WWI and show us the completion of Koloman Mayerhofer’s O.E.F. Albatros D.III with its original - one of three in the world - Austro-Daimler 23.000 series engine. A series of articles has kept us informed of Koloman’s progress on this beautiful reproduction over the years. The, seemingly, endless telling of the Gallaudet Story enters its fifth year with Part 17. Other articles deal with fish-theme color schemes on USN fling boats, The Linke-Hofman riesenflugzeugs and an original 1918 US Air Service report on camouflage with two pages of color illustrations. You can see the scope of the subjects covered in the table of contents reproduced here.

Go to: worldwar1aeroplanesinc.org for subscription and other information.