People, Bottom Line, Video & Book Reviews

People

The CAA has made the following appoint- ments: Miles Flanagan Manager for Corpo- rate Human Resources, Peter Shea Man- ager for Corporate Information Systems, Peter Hobbs Financial Controller Corporate Employee Relations, Tony McDonald Man- ager Industrial Advocacy, John Lai Corpo- rate Financial Controller, Gee Chua reappointed as Treasurer, Graham Beer Manager Financial Strategy, John Nolan continues as Manager Corporate Client Relations, George Macionis General Man- ager CAA Rescue and Fire Fighting Service, Karl Drake-Brockman Manager Taxation. The CAA has also announced the following Assistant General Managers for the new CAA Air Traffic Management Team; Don Brown, Tony Allison, Peter Evans, Peter O’Connell, Kim Jones, Brian Kendal, George Grunbaum, John Cappelletti, and Daryl Cathro. Finally, the CAA has announced its new senior safety regulation and standards team as follows; John Nolan Regional Manager Administration SA, Peter Abberton Manager Administration North East Region, Bob Galligan Manager Admin- istration Westem Region, Jeff Way Manager Divisional Support Canberra, Trevor Burns Manager Licensing, Colin Torkington Man- ager Airworthiness and Ops, Paul Mid- dleton Manager Standards Development, Phil Lemon Financial Controller, and Peter llyk Manager Legislation Development. Pierre Jeanniot has been elected Director General Designate of IATA. Air Marshal Sir James Rowland has been appointed Chairman of the Aerospace Foundation of Australia, lan Smith as Deputy Chairman, and the following as board members; Col Free- land, Air Commodore Geoff Michael, Freeman Strickland, Captain Alan Terrell. Eastwest has announced the following appointments; Walton National Accounts Manager, Sue Foley Acting Sales Manager, NSW, and lan Greenland Sales Manager Groups and Incentives.

Videos

 Historic Airpower- Vol 1:

AVI The launch tape in a new series of WW2 tapes by Aviation Video International based on official US Govemment film reports of the era. Vol 1 includes two offerings – “The Memphis Belle’ and ‘Fortress of the Sky”.

No doubt the first is well known to most readers as it was this original William Wyler tape which inspired his granddaughter to make a full length movie of the same name not so long ago. The 40 minute tape takes you on the final mission of this famous B-17F over Germany in addition to outlining the broad details of the perilous daylight missions of the USAAF. The ‘Belle’ flew with the 25th Bomb Group and was actually the first bomber in the 8th Air Force to survive its 25 mission tour. Grim testimony to the attrition endured by the 8th.

Volume 1 of our Historic Airpower series concentrates largely on operations with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

The second offering in Vol 1 deals with the design and construction of the B-17 with much excellent historical footage from Boeing’s huge Seattle assembly plants. An interesting feature in view of its historical value in also documenting the social mood and style of the times. ‘Fortress’ runs for 25 minutes and both tapes are in colour.

Available in VHS from Australian Aviation for only $29. 95 plus $5. 50 p&p, PO Box 3105. Weston Creek, ACT, 2611. Phone orders on (06) 288 1677 or by fax (06) 288 2021.

Historic Airpower-VOL3:

AVI Volume 3 of our Historic Airpower series includes three tapes on the then revolutionary B-29 Superfortress.

This aircraft actually gave Boeing the technological leap forward required to go on to become the major supplier of the US military via the B-47 and B-52 programmes of the following decade and through the C/KC-135 the eventual 707 and a line of commercial transports that now total more than 6,000 jetliners.

The B-29 of course was conceived to satisty one single requirement- to take the war to the Japanese homeland and bomb Japan into surrender to avoid the prospect of a bloody invasion that would conservatively cost an estimated million allied lives. The first tape, ‘The Last Bomb’ portrays the difficulties in making the highly complex bomber operational and the problems encountered when they were initially based out of China.

HLE Showing its ability to fly bomber proportion missions, the P-51 Mustang features in Vol 3 in the escort role, accompanying B-29s deep into Japan from their tiny Iwo Jima base.

As the Northern Marianas fell to the USMC a chain of new bases became available that meant that the B-29s could now reach Japan with their designed bomb loads. This tape not only includes much excellent B-29 footage but of particular interest is the involvement of P-51 Mustangs based in the latter stages of the campaign at Iwo Jima. The ‘Stangs would rendezvous with the Superforts just south of the Japanese mainland and provide escort for the bombers whilst also acting in the fighter bomber role once the B-298 had withdrawn. Gutsy stuff considering the vulnerability of the single engine liquid cooled fighter to ground fire over what had to be the unfriendliest enemy territory of WW2 and with a thousand klics of ocean between you and home.

The second tape deals with the construction of a single B-29 and the hundreds of firms involved in putting just one of the giants on the flight line. The advanced production methods pioneered by Boeing on this aircraft are obvious and also extremely interesting. Finally, “Target Tokyo’ recites the formation of the first Pacific based B-29 wing and their inaugural mission to Tokyo. The latter two tapes are in b&w and the entire video runs for just over 80 minutes, making it very good value indeed.

Available in VHS from Australian Aviation, PO Box 3105, Weston Creek, ACT, 2611 for just $29. 95 plus $5. 50 p&p. Telephone orders on (06) 288 1677 or by fax on (06) 288 2021.

Books

Flight Into the Ages:

Ken Llewelyn This is a most unusual book and to this reviewer’s knowledge the first written on aviation paranormal activity. An added bonus for those interested in such phenomena is that as Ken Llewelyn is locally based it is also heavily optimised towards experiences relating to Australia.

Essentially the 222 page book is a collection of stories that the author has come in contact with as the RAAF’s senior PR Officer. Paranormal phenomena in the aviation context are not unusual and extend far beyond the mere sightings of UFOs and similar. Instances where a pilot has foretold the imminent crash of an aircraft are just one such instance outlined in this unusual book. A goodread for those interested in aviation paranormal events and available from FITA, 16/2 Forest Rd, Warriewood 2102 for $14. 95 plus $5. 00 p&p.

Six Aces: Australian Fighter Pilots 1939-45:

Lex McAuly The author’s aim was to record the careers of six little known Australian fighter aces in the Second World War; in this he has largely succeeded.

Those interested in military history know that an author always has a difficult task to write of the heat of battle without the narrative becoming repetitive and boring, particularly when all that is available are the official records. Too much “Jones dived on the E/A and fired a short burst, hits were observed and the E/A was seen to dive trailing black smoke” can leave the reader stunned. What we want to know is what the pilot was thinking, what he was observing and more to the point, how he planned (if at all) to outwit his foe.

Of the six pilots, three were still living at the time the book was written and this is reflected in the personal element injected into their stories. The author has made good use of the material available to write the story. of the remaining three.

A valuable addition to the record of Australia’s aviation fighting history. Available for $30. 00 from Banner Books, 308 Victoria St. Brunswick 3056.

 Darwin’s Air War 1942-1945 An Illustrated History:

RN Alford It is a well known fact that during the early stages of the Pacific conflict Darwin was repeatedly bombed by Japanese forces. However, the air war over Darwin has never been as comprehensively documented as it is in this publication, which has been published by the Aviation Historical Society of the Northern Territory.

Commemorating the Darwin air raids, this book deals with the war over Darwin, beginning with the slow build up of forces in the region before the war and the first raids dur- ing the dark days of 1942 right through until the cessation of hostilities in 1945.

A result of many years of research, it is lavishly and appropriately illustrated with a great deal of rare photographs including a selection of unique high quality colour photo-graphs taken by USAAF pilot Lieutenant Clyde Bamett of the 49th Fighter Group during his time at Darwin.

Further adding to the book’s appeal are maps illustrating Darwin’s airfields and defences during the conflict, appendices listing allied squadrons, their locations and aircraft and individual pilot profiles, detailing a representative selection of the aircrew who took part in the air war.

Available from Darwin’s Airwar Trust Fund, PO Box 38037, Winnellie NT 0821, for $14. 95 for soft cover and $29. 95 for hard cover. Add $3. 00 p&p.

Lockheed P-38 Lightning:

Warren M Bodie Recently published in the US, Warren Bodie’s work is certainly the best book ever written about Lockheed’s much maligned twin boom fighter. Bodie, a retired Lockheed engineer, spent two decades meticulously researching this topic, personally interviewing many of the key participants in the development, testing, service introduction and use of the aircraft.

The result is a penetrating insight into not only the technical issues faced by the designers, but also the operational issues and the all pervasive internal politics of the then USAAF. Seventeen chapters and five appendices cover the initial service politics, conceptual design, competitive aircraft designs, prototype and development testing, initial production and operational trials.

The operational history of the aircraft covers seven chapters, which document initial deployments to the UK, early Pacific operations in the Aleutians and New Guinea, daylight fighter escort operations from the UK, the very important Mediterranean operations and finally the latter phase of the war in the Pacific and Western Europe.

Bodie’s background and detailed research effort reflects in a well structured work which is all the more valuable as an accurate snapshot of the period, detailing the technical, operational and political subcultures in a fashion which the reviewer has yet to see elsewhere. Australian readers should consider this title seriously, as the P-38 was a key asset in the Pacific, heavily involved throughout the 1942-45 air war, and flown by the top scoring aces in the theatre.

With a total of almost 200,000 words of text and more than 300 photos, including many colour, screened to high resolution, this title is good value at $US45. 50 including påp. Available from Widewing Publications, PO Box 238, Hiawassee, GA 30546-0238, USA, Fax 0011-1-704-389 6365.