Issue 356: Lightning Bolt

In addition to the existing team I’d like to welcome Mark Jessop, Kirsty Ferguson, Steve Vissher, Solange Cunin and Andrew McLaughlin to the team to enhance our engagement through visual media, radio, engagement of millennials, space and aviation in the rapidly evolving defence industry.

I am an aviation geek and I am also an aviator. I cannot remember a time in my life when I wasn’t passionate about aviation, whether it was my first airshow at Amberley watching an Iroquois drop a car in front of a cheering crowd and having my eyebrows singed by an F-111 dump and burn, my first solo flight in a C152 at the Royal Queensland Aero Club at the age of 16, my first solo in an F/A-18 Hornet or my first foray into publishing as the publisher of Australian Aviation.

I love anything that flies! So I am a little saddened by a certain malaise that has gripped the aviation sector in Australia and I am determined to do everything I can to ensure aviation becomes cool again.

The look and feel of this magazine is an obvious starting point and we hope you enjoy our first issue in the new format. We’ll continue to tweak our content with the addition of monthly space and UAV features, more features from the cockpit, news from around the world and a substantially beefed up digital presence bringing you a more personalised experience. You’ll see more video, podcasts, virtual reality flights, a new digital magazine, more free feature content and a raft of products and services reviewed and recommended by our stable of aviators.

I hope you can help us on our journey as we continue to refine our content and the way we deliver this content to you our readers, to keep you informed and ensure you not only read about aviation, that we help you experience aviation through the eyes of the aviators.

Christian ‘Boo’ Boucousis It’s been energising putting together this edition of Australian Aviation.

For the past few years now we’ve made an effort in our January- February double issue to increase the number of pages in the magazine and to include features and stories that might be a bit more colourful, offbeat or interesting than normal. Hence we use the ‘Summer Reading Issue’ tag.

But I think this issue truly lives up to that term. At 132 pages this is the largest edition of Australian Aviation in some years. It includes some fantastic reading across a range of aviation topics, from drone racing to the Voyager I spacecraft entering interstellar space, and much, much more in between.

This issue is also a great pointer to Australian Aviation’s new direction and focus under Boo as its new publisher – more engaging content across the breadth of aviation, and content that looks at and points to the future of Aviation.

It has been great fun working with Boo to deliver what is without doubt the best edition of Australian Aviation in many years. This issue introduces a lot of change, and is bigger, which I think neatly reflects the fact that aviation is fast-paced and continues to grow, pretty much across the spectrum.

The changes extend from the visual – a new Australian Aviation masthead for the first time in 12 years and a refreshed design – to the depth and style of content. And it’s exciting to add to the team of writers and photographers that has long been Australian Aviation’s greatest strength, new names and fresh takes on our industry.

I think the end result is a fresh take on a well-loved and appreciated magazine. And we’ve only just started!

Gerard Frawley