Skyways
The Journal of the Airplane 1920-1940
No. 85, January 2008

Reviewed by Jim Schubert

It is a bit late but well worth waiting for. The beautiful computer graphic of Stanavo’s Monocoupe 90 and one of their Vegas, both in the wild Eagle color scheme, is worth the price of the issue. The lead article on Civil Aircraft Colors by John Eney is a counterpoint to the myriad articles we see everywhere on military color schemes. It is supported by six pages of full color prints of the color charts produced by paint manufacturers of Golden Age These charts will get you in the ballpark colorwise but they are not dead-on reliable as the printing process with inks cannot accurately reproduce colors. Aviation artist and friend John Amendola compared these printed color charts and the originals that he has in his reference collection and found some are very close and some are way off. But it’s a terrific recognition of a long ignored subject. I would suggest that the Editor make it a requirement, where possible, for all authors submitting to this journal provide color notes and references.

An article by E.R. Johnson tells us the short life history of the Douglas DC-5. Designed to carry up to 22 passengers and be operated by a crew of three the DC-5 couldn’t have come at a worse point in time – just prior to WWII. It was a brilliant concept but the flow of history was against it. Only 12 were built; one prototype, later sold to Bill Boeing as his personal transport and named “Rover”, four for KLM and seven for the US Navy/Marine Corps. Rover was impressed by the Navy when the war started. KLM sent two of theirs to Java to operate services there and two to the Caribbean. The Japanese captured one of the Javanese planes, took it back to Japan and used it as a radio and nav trainer. Another of the KLM planes survived the war, was sold to a Zionist front organization and taken to Israel. After a bad landing accident with the IDF-AF it ended its days as an instructional airframe in Haifa and was scrapped in 1954. Sad.

Of especial interest to modelers is Bill Bosworths well illustrated article on his beautiful scratchbuilt 1/48 Sikorsky S.42 Clipper. I do wish some kit manufacturer would do a 1/72 kit of this beautiful plane.

Seattle friend Terrence McKinley McKosh has written a nicely illustrated article on the “Good Ship Lollipop” DC-2, msn 1307, NC14274. In which he points out, inter alia, that the scenes of Shirley Temple singing and dancing in the aisle of the taxiing tail dragger have the floor magically made level during filming of the 1934 movie “Bright Eyes”. It’s a fun read and Terrence goes on to tell us quite a bit about “our” DC-2, msn 1368, NC14296 owned by Seattle’s Museum of Flight. Our DC-2 was restored by Clay Lacy and company in his shops in Van Nuys and flown up to Seattle on June 7, 2007. It is painted in the pre-war colors of TWA and carries TWA registration NC13711 with its legal registration NC1934D discreetly painted in a very small font under the LE of the stabilizer.

Other articles feature the final fighters designed at Farnborough, the US military’s choice between biplanes and monoplanes in the thirties, details of the cockpits of the TBD Devastator and we also have the usuals of editorial, models, letters, &c.

This is the best magazine available for enthusiasts interested in the Golden Age of aviation.

Both Skyways and its sister journal WWI Aero are now available on line and you can pay with PayPal; the dark ages have ended and the renaissance has begun.

For details go to the web site at www.skywaysjournal.org