Aeroplane Magazine British Bombers of WW2 Special Issue

IN THIS EDITION of Aeroplane Collectors’ Archive, focusing on British Bombers
of World War Two, we bring together some of the  nest images from the war
years of The Aeroplane and some of the period cutaway artwork.
GLASS PLATE NEGATIVES
The stunning photographs used here were taken by the talented photographic
sta of The Aeroplane – Charles Sims, Alf Long and Maurice Rowe to name
a few – on glass-plate negatives that now comprise one of the  nest historic
aviation archives in the world.
We recently spoke to Maurice Rowe to ask him, some 67 years later, to
recall his experiences and explain what it was like trying to capture these
great images:
“When I started with Temple Press, my duties included making up chemicals
and drying photographs on rotary glazing drums, while also learning how to
operate a large copying camera that ran on rails.
“After some years, on the retirement of a member of sta , I was given
the opportunity to become a photographer. Standard equipment for a
photographer then was the First World War-vintage Van Neck VN
Press Camera.
“While away on an overnight assignment, when a large amount of
photographs were required, the slides had to be reloaded. This was usually done
in the hotel bedroom, where one would struggle into the wardrobe – making
sure the door was  rmly closed – or attempt to get the job done
while hiding under the bedclothes!
“Of all the assignments I was given, air-to-air photography was by far the
most challenging. It was easy enough to take pictures from the back end of
a Blackburn Beverley, as many of the images were, or the side-door of an Avro
Lancaster, but being trussed up like a chicken and thrust into a Hawker Hunter,
hardly able to move and with an oxygen mask clamped to your face, was a
di erent matter. With no room for a camera case, as many slides as possible were
crammed into your left-hand pockets, the exposed plates then being carefully
transferred to your right-hand pockets – it was exhausting.”