Skyways

The Journal Of The Airplane 1920-1940
Nos. 66 - April & 67 - July 2003

Reviewed by Jim Schubert

No. 66 grabs your attention right away with a beautiful in-flight cover shot of the Art-Deco Bell Airacuda. This airplane has fascinated me since I was a child. My mother bought a cast metal toy Airacuda for me at Woolworth's in Lafayette, Indiana in 1937 or 38. It was a real favorite of mine; shooting down many German attackers threatening our backyard. This strikingly attractive airplane was incredibly misbegotten; there was no mission for it when it was conceived and none for it when it was built. Continuous development made it progressively worse. This putative "Bomber Destroyer" was too slow to catch a Boeing B-17 in level flight! It also got heavier and less maneuverable as it matured. The project was finally scrapped in 1941 after 14 examples of the 1934 design had been built. The story of the Airacuda is followed by Erik Shilling's account of flying it and by a photo essay on its interior; great fodder for model builders - especially now that there's a new 1:72 scale resin kit of it from The Czech Republic. The Martin MB-2 repro built by Mark Smith and Karen Barrow of Century Aviation in Wenatchee, Washington is given good coverage - get out your old ITC kit. The story of Fokker's Josephine Ford is concluded. Other features cover: Cain Aircraft; Benny Howard's Pete; and a whole bunch of weird airplanes. The Models section features John Ficklen's 1:32 scale Martin B-10 and Bill Bosworth's 1:32 scale Macchi M.39 Schneider racer.

Issue No. 67 also grabs your immediate attention with a photo of the Shuttleworth Collection's restored, original Dehavilland DH-88 Comet Grosvenor House. This lead-in is followed up with a six page article with photos and drawings of this marvelous racer. Other features cover: the pretty little Kadiak Speedster biplane racer of 1929, which is still flying; the N3N Yellow Peril; the ill-fated, but beautiful, Napier-Heston Racer; the Travel Air 400; the Keystone Bomber; the Light-Bomber Competition of 1939, which resulted in the Douglas A-20, the Martin Maryland and Baltimore and - indirectly - in the North American B-25 Medium Bomber; the Northrop N-3PB and details of the Curtiss Sparrowhawk. There also all of the usual departments.

This journal is a gold mine of "Golden Age" material. Subscriptions cost $35.00 in the USA and $40.00 in Canada and elsewhere. Write to them at:

World War 1 Aeroplanes, Inc.
Skyways
15 Crescent Road
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
USA