Bjorn Karlstrom
IF YOU'VE been a regular reader of American aviation magazines during the past three decades, the legend "Scale drawings by Bjorn Karlstrom" is a familiar one. From the hundreds of such publications in which Karlstrom's drawings have appeared over the last 35 years, the distinctive style of this Swedish artist is recognizable on sight. Yet who among us would know Bjorn Karlstrom if he walked through the door? Bill Winter, the venerable former editor of Model Aviation who was probably the first American editor to use Karlstrom's work back around 1950, has never set eyes on him or even spoken with him on the phone.
Hendon: For the serious aviation buff and/or Scale modeler, a visit to Hendon just outside London to see these rare machines is a pilgrimage well worth taking.
IT'S A TOSS-UP which is more packed with history: the displays in the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, or Hendon itself. Like so many places in England, the area is imbued with tales and legends of the early Celts and their Anglo-Saxon successors reaching back to what seems like the beginning of time. To a visitor from a relatively young country like the U.S.A., Hendon feels ancient indeed. One doesn't go back very far, of course, to trace the "beginning of time" for British aviation. In 1908 an American pilot named Samuel Cody made the first recognized flight on English soil, in a craft given the serviceable, if unglamorous, name of "British Army Aeroplane #1."
Fairey Swordfish
OF THE HUNDREDS of fascinating airplanes that are drooled over by Scale modelers, many can be found at private airports.
D.H. 88 Grosvenor House
Probably the most historic airplane in the annals of pre-WW II long-distance racing and record setting, Grosvenor House is still flying today thanks to the philosophy of the administrators of the Shuttleworth Collection.
Racing Yaks
HOW CAN IT BE that a couple of old Russian training planes look more like classic American racing planes than even the most magnificently modified Mustang or Bearcat could possibly look? After all, isn't shortcourse, all-out pylon racing as typically American as baseball? Sure, a few of the pilots in the oh-so-macho Unlimited class have failed to heed the lessons of the American Revolution of 1776 and have switched to Hawker Sea Furys. Since the big British fighter does have a 2,350-cu.-in. engine and a funny five-bladed prop that turns the other way, one can understand the American pilots' defection.
