Musee de l'Air

Ranking with our own Air & Space Museum, this world-famous institution is the oldest in the world. It's unique because the French display practically everything they possess-including a fairy-tale collection of many storied flying machines. Housed in two separate installations, are fabulous collections of genuine early-birds and later-day craft that underscore the brilliance of the designers in breath-taking experimental conceptions. Tieing it all together are numerous displays of fabled Golden Age racers, record machines-ad infinitum.

The Fairey Long Range

ONCE upon a time, in the dim, dark past, the world of aviation insisted on making a great fuss about whose airplane could fly the furthest. It was as big a deal as which airplane could fly the fastest, though of course, it no longer seems as glamorous. Today, wide-bodied airliners routinely fly more than 10,000 miles, non-stop, on delivery flights to customers on the far side of the Earth. Such journeys actually involve little more than stuffing a huge amount of fuel into the built-in tanks and heading for someplace far away.

Golden Anniversary of the Cleveland National Air Races

The golden age of air racing began in the last year of the `roaring twenties' and, like moths to the flame, swarmed the hero pilots and never-to-be-forgotten airplanes. To the public, Cleveland-the site of the Annual National Air Races-for many years was every bit as glamorous as Indy. This issue relives the wonderful prewar years. The October issue covers the postwar period.

The Magical Kingdom

THERE'S a magical kingdom where the king and all his subjects worship airplanes. It's a neatly mowed and wonderfully green English airfield surrounded by centuries-old homes and farms and peaceful woods that echo the very special sounds of piston engines and wooden propellers. The low-slung hangars swing open easily to reveal a living air museum, so completely different from the static and sterile collections which try to tell the story of aviation. One hangar houses the truly ancient craft, some of which performed their miracles of self-propelled flight in the movie "Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines."

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