COVER IMAGE: A stunning image of the Lone Star Flight Museum’s superb Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Thunderbird with its bomb bay doors open, taken by LUIGINO CALIARO.

ContentsSeptember2011Vol39No9IssueNo461(onsaleJul26)

Features16WHENTHECLOUDS

ROLLED BY The warmth, dedication and heartache of some of those close to the Spitfire’s famous designer is in itself a story not to be forgotten. It is told here by Jennie Sherborne, daughter of Supermarine test pilot George Pickering

22 SCHNEIDER WINNER

This September marks the 80th anniversary of Great Britain winning the Schneider Trophy outright with Supermarine S.6B S1595. From the Imperial War Museum archives we present interviews with designer Reginald J. Mitchell and winning pilot Flt Lt John Boothman

26 A VERY SPECIAL FORTRESS

Steve Bridgewater spotlights the Lone Star Flight Museum’s Boeing B-17 Thunderbird

P-51D Mustang 44-13521 Marinell flying over Britannia-class steam locomotive 70013 Oliver Cromwell while it was haul ing “The Norfolkman” from Liverpool Street, London, to Norwich

46 THE MYSTERIOUS

MULTIGUN F.B.19 Philip Jarrett describes the dilemma posed by a watercolour bought at auction

50 FORTY YEARS WITH FIFI

Ian Scaife reflects on the Commemorative Air Force’s 40 years of flying Boeing B-29 Superfortress 44-62070

57 FLYING THE METEOR

Display pilot Dan Griffith provides Richard Paver with an assessment of Gloster Meteor NF.11 WM167

32 KENT’S OWN

Robin J. Brooks describes the early wartime operations of 500 (County of Kent) Sqn, Auxiliary Air Force, which earned the unit the Battle Honour Channel and the North Sea 1939-1941

41 P-51D Mustang

A snapshot of Maurice Hammond’s North American

96 GOING DUTCH IN

CALIFORNIA Frank B. Mormillo profiles a trainer rarity in US skies

98 “TO SEE SUCH

QUANTITIES OF SAND” Group Captain H.F. O’Neill DFC* recalls his wartime experiences as CO of 238 Sqn in the Western Desert

In News

Shuttleworth bags a Wildcat Page 7

Combat-veteran P-51D flies Page 8

Hunters soar at 60

Page 11

“Hercs” leave Lyneham Page 12

DATABASE

Wellington’s 75th

Page 14

17PAGESOFDETAIL

RAND

69 BLACKBURN FIREBRAND Barry Jones tells the full story of the brawny naval aircraft, from its early days as an elegant fighter to its reinvention as a brutish torpedo-bomber aircraft, from its

WIN!WIN!

44 Competition Your chance to win two signed Spitfire postal covers established 1911

Aeroplane traces its lineage back to the weekly The Aeroplane, founded by the legendary C.G. Grey in 1911 and published until 1968. It was relaunched as a monthly magazine in 1973 by Richard T. Riding (Editor for 25 years until 1998)

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