For a glimpse of what's in Issue No 50 of The Aviation Historian, click/tap images below-right to view larger PDF versions of our tasters featuring just ten of its 132 pages.

Look inside the latest issue of TAH

Sowing the Wind

Professor Keith Hayward FRAeS takes an in-depth look at the political and industrial manœuvring behind the development of the European Fighter Aircraft in the 1980s – a road that would ultimately lead to Typhoon and Rafale

A Prince Among Pilots

In 1942 Thai prince "Nicky" Varanand joined the RAF, with which he flew "Spitbomber" sorties over Normandy in 1944 before taking part in clandestine operations behind the lines in his native Thailand. Edward M. Young tells the unique story of a Thai citizen flying RAF wartime ops

Old Bottle, New Wine

By the mid-1950s powerplant technology was moving at lightning speed in the USA; Tony Buttler FRAeS examines seven standard production jet fighters which were used as testbeds for the most advanced jet and rocket engines

The Maple Leaf Airline Pt 3

Airline historian Maurice Wickstead concludes his three-part history of Trans-Canada Air Lines, picking up the story at the end of the Second World War, when the airline expanded to become a truly world-class carrier

Hell's Cauldron

Continuing our series on the history and development of Britain's aerial weapons, using the stunning artwork of Ian Bott, Chris Gibson describes how the combination of the mighty Avro Lancaster and the bombs it carried in its capacious bomb bay created a devastating weapon of war

The Road to Andover

James Jackson examines the UK's military Light Cargo Requirement of the late 1950s, which pitted the British Avro 748 and Handley Page Dart Herald against each other – plus a wild card: Canada's DHC-4 Caribou

The Grand Tour Pt 2

100 years ago Argentinian Pedro Zanni and his mechanic Felipe Beltrame set off from Amsterdam in a Fokker C IV biplane on their attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Ricardo M. Lezon concludes his two-parter using Zanni's own recollections of the pair's ultimately ill-fated adventure

Tip of the Assegai Pt 2

Andrew Thomas rounds off his history of de Havilland's twin-boom Vampire in Rhodesian service, which included regular combat in border patrols and cross-border strikes

Hollywood's Greatest Aviator

He is one of the world's best-known film stars from the golden age of Hollywood – but James Stewart was also a lifelong aviator, military and civil, as James Kightly relates

Deadly Sabre Dance

In November 1954 Air Cdre Geoffrey Stephenson was killed flying a USAF F-100 Super Sabre in the USA. John Shields investigates an accident still shrouded in mystery

Charlie Five

Former Fleet Air Arm pilot the late Cdr John Ford brings us aboard HMS Ark Royal in a Supermarine Scimitar

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Look inside back-issues of TAH

You can check the content of all available back-issues of The Aviation Historian in two ways:

1. Visit our Single issues page, where you can see the front cover of each issue, read a one-sentence list of the most significant articles, and view/download a PDF of that issue's contents page.
2. Visit our Index page, where you can download a free PDF of our regularly-updated index to everything we've published, compiled by author, title and subject. So if you want to know where to find information about the CIA’s secret airline, or a photograph of the cockpit of a Vickers Vespa, or how stewardesses faked hot toddies for a cabinful of passengers when someone had nicked the brandy from the galley, you can zero-in on the exact TAH issue you need.