FROM THE ARCHIVES The stories behind items in the LAA’s collection FIRST ISSUE OF POPULAR FLYING MAGAZINE

While the March 1957 issue wasn’t the first publication (as early as 1947, the Ultra Light Aircraft Association produced the ULAA Bulletin, which consisted of a number of types duplicated pages stapled together), in 1957 it was decided to produce a printed magazine and Popular Flying was born.

Or, rather, re-born. The title Popular Flying had been used for a monthly magazine created between 1933 and 1939 by Captain W E Johns, author of the Biggles’ series. Given that Association’s name had changed from the Ultra Light Aircraft Association to the Popular Flying Association some years earlier, the title was secured with the permission of Johns, and edited by former guards officer and air display commentator John Blake.

Popular Flying magazine was made available to members and also offered for sale with a cover price of one shilling and sixpence per copy – 7½p in today’s money.

The first edition featured a cover picture of a DHC-1 Chipmunk from a batch of 62, which had been sold by W S Shackleton after being ‘demobbed’ from RAF service. It also included the first of a series of articles by Arthur W J G Ord-Hume, entitled The Amateur Aircraft Constructor’s Guide

Meanwhile, there was a report on a trip to Paris to ‘iron out a few Turbulent drawings’ with Roger Druine, adding that Druine’s new Condor drawings, redrawn for the homebuilder, were to be available imminently and the ‘Aviation Diary’ showed that what was to be the first PFA Rally, would take place on 14/15 September 1957. Steve Slater