ON THE COVER:
Chuck Gardner brings Yanks All-American Air Museum’s Bell Kingcobra in for a portrait near Chino, California, on 13 January 2024. Photography by Michael O’Leary

FEATURES:

WHEN BOEING FLEW THE MAIL
The pioneering days of international air mail when Eddie Hubbard and the Boeing B-1 flying boat flew between Seattle and Canada / by Howard Carter

SWEATER GIRL
This appropriately named modified Lockheed Ventura helped develop the Wright R-3350 engines for the Lockheed Constellation / by Fred Roberts

KELLETT’S “EGG-BEATERS”
The development of early helicopters was a difficult and dangerous time. The small firm of Kellett went from limited production autogiros to two large and challenging rotary wing craft — the XR-8 and XR-10 / by Rod Shelton

RETURN OF THE KING
How Yanks Air Museum spent five years restoring a Bell P-63 Kingcobra for flight along with an overlook of the type and the role it played as an aerial target / by Michael O’Leary

COLORS OF WAR
More interesting images of American and Allied aircraft of the Second World War / by Michael O’Leary

DEPARTMENTS:

MESSAGE FROM PUBLISHER

WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT
All the latest vintage and veteran aircraft news / by Doug Fisher

LOG ENTRIES
Howard Hughes was one of the most interesting and colorful aviation personalities, yet it was those very traits that made him an enemy of numerous self-serving politicians / by Mark Bingham

LARKINS ON THE RAMP
William T. Larkins traveled to hundreds of airports to find interesting aircraft to photograph / by W.T. Larkins

FRIDAY NIGHT OLDIES
Rare Kodachromes of
surplus military aircraft before they were Warbirds / by Doug Fisher

DOWN MEMORY’S RUNWAY
Aircraft from aviation’s glorious past / by Norm Taylor

AIRLINES
News and views from the readers of Air Classics