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THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 4 5 3 EDITOR’S LETTER 6 AIR CORRESPONDENCE 10 TAKING THE SEAFIRE TO SEA Commander David “Shorty” Hamilton recalls what the Supermarine Seafire was like to fly on and off a carrier 16 RADIANT SKIES Propulsion specialist Jakob Whitfield examines America’s disastrous Cold War efforts to harness atomic energy as a means for powering aircraft 26 AMERICAN CLASSICS Classic images from The Alpha Archive of Ford Tri-Motors in US Army, Navy and Marine Corps service 28 HAPPINESS IS . . . VECTORED THRUST Hawker Siddeley historian Chris Farara chronicles the career of G-VTOL, the company’s hardworking two-seat Harrier demonstrator 42 G-VTOL’S INDIAN SUMMER Following on from its history, former test pilot John Farley describes flying G-VTOL on a 1972 demo tour in India 48 OUT OF THE BLACK Michael O’Leary introduces a two-part feature on the post-war civil use of the Northrop P-61 and F-15 Reporter, starting with the Black Widow’s stint in civvie street 58 AN AIRSHIP INTERLUDE Lighter-than-air flight specialist Brian J. Turpin traces the rise and fall of Britain’s first post-First World War non-rigid airship, the Airship Development Company’s AD 1 68 KEEPING THE PEACE Jan Forsgren provides an in-depth account of the 1958 aerial operations of the United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon, which fielded Harvards, Bird Dogs and Bell 47s 82 HISTORY OR HOGWASH? Mick Oakey investigates the re-emergence of a claim that Gustave Whitehead successfully flew an aeroplane before the Wright Brothers — is there anything in it? 90 BEFORE & AFTER From Latvia to Luftwaffe: Roger Tisdale and Arvo Vercamer detail the markings of a much-travelled Gloster Gladiator 92 FLY AMERICA! In the concluding half of his two-parter on the USA’s local service airlines, David H. Stringer plots the transition from propliners to the jet age and, ultimately, the end of an era 106 THE RIVIERA TOUCH Rod Simpson takes a look at Nardi’s FN.333 Riviera, a classic 1950s amphibian with typically Italian good looks 118 ARMCHAIR AVIATION 123 LOST & FOUND 124 GUN COTTON Sidney Cotton is famous for his audacious spy flights over Germany — less well-known are his gun-running exploits for the Nizam of Hyderabad, as revealed by Jeff Watson 130 OFF THE BEATEN TRACK CONTENTS Issue No 4 28 16 58 92 82 106 10
