FlyPast Magazine July 2019 Back Issue

The latest 132-page issue of FlyPast profiles a new warbird experience flight organisation based at Sywell in Northamptonshire. Photographer Darren Harbar goes air-to-air with Ultimate Warbirds’ Republic P-47D Thunderbolt ‘Nellie B’ and North American TF-51D Mustang ‘Contrary Mary’ and explains how you can go flying in – or in the case of the former, alongside – one of these legendary World War Two icons. Not only that, but we’ll soon be able see a four-ship of fighters from the same stable performing at airshows.

D-Day 75th Anniversary
We mark this important anniversary with a series of themed features, including a look at the British south coast airfields used on the day – then and now – and a portfolio of rarely seen images from the archive.

Airacobra returns
Jerry Yagen’s magnificent Bell P-39F Airacobra has returned to the air, thanks to superb work from New Zealand’s Pioneer Aero. Gavin Conroy tells its story.

Sea Vixen anniversary
Jamie Ewan reports from the Classic British Jets Collection’s unique birthday celebration for its de Havilland Sea Vixen.

Airshow spectacular
There’s no airshow quite like Florida’s six-day SUN ‘n FUN as Frank Mormillo discovers.

Victoria Cross legend
In the last of our series on VC recipients, Graham Pitchfork profiles legendary Catalina pilot Flt Lt John Cruickshank.

Elsewhere, aviation historian Tony Buttler reflects on Convair’s sleek XB-46, a jet that looked the part but failed to impress the US air force and Barry Wheeler documents Japan’s Mitsubishi Raiden, another machine that didn’t quite fulfil its potential in service. Learning to fly the Folland Gnat wasn’t easy either but it proved to be a superb aerobatic machine in the right hands, as Roy Gamblin describes, while fellow Cold War pilot Carrol Johnson provides a riveting account of flying Super Sabres into combat in Vietnam.