Regarding the two main aviation magazines discussed above, I am the archetypal "floating reader" of both, making my personal choice monthly in the retail outlets after a comparative browse through both. Each month I buy one, or the other, or neither, based on my specific interest in aircraft types featured, and historic articles included. Taking out a subscription would be wasteful, despite the annual saving, because many years of readership have shown me that a certain number of issues of both titles are likely to be of little or no interest to me each year. I prefer to retain total freedom of selection, at point of sale.
The current Autumn Aeroplane magazine is the copy of choice for me this month, (despite having a sealed plastic enclosure with the bonus Comet special, which prevented my usual browsing!), for two reasons:
- The article on V1 flying bombs advertised on the cover is of very personal interest to me, having lived in Maidstone during the period when hundreds of the infernal devices were flying overhead. Over 1,400 of them crashed down all over Kent, and I witnessed several being pursued by RAF fighters with guns blazing. Exciting to a five year old, but seriously worrying to the adults aware of their deadly effects.
- The Comet bonus issue was potentially interesting, because in the late 1950s I went to RAE Farnborough with my university engineering society, where we were shown the Comet G-ALYU fatigue testing rig in a large Braithwaite water tank, where thousands of simulated pressurisation cycles and wing-waggling movements had eventually revealed a fatigue failure at the ADF window in the cabin roof. The special magazine showed this in several superb photos, so I was well pleased with my choice this month.
I must confess a partiality towards Aeroplane, and this particular issue tends to confirm the validity of this - but let's see what next month brings, shall we?
