Issues 3 and 4 are missing but around this time Colin Cohen commenced his series of illustrated articles and it is beleved that one of these featured this Nigeria Airways issue VC-10. It would also later feature in the VC-10 catalogue too.

Staying with Colin, in issue 5 he commented on the early B&W cards from French published Editions PI, which , at the time, was still publishing but now gone. It was claimed that even in 1992 these early cards could fetch up to £10 in equivalent Francs – this being pre-Euro. Anybody paying that amount would not have made much profit , if any, today. Anyway here is SAS DC-7C on PI55

In issue 6, then member Roger Syratt raised the still –active issue of fakes. These were apparent copies of Frith original real photo cards of UK airports and RAF Brize Norton. All were rare enough not to have a real Frith to illustrate this piece so here is a copy from the original newsletter as an example of how bad copying and printing was then. Now a genuine copy of this Aer Lingus Carvair at Bristol would most definitely have shown a profit.

Unbelievably , for a time, the print quality actually got worse before being largely solved by printing from digital sources. I am told that much of the Roger Syratt collection was sold at the Heathrow/Kempton fair earlier this year but Roger remains active as an photographer of propliners.As another indicator of passage of time since 1993, Colin Cohen featured a card from Cyprus Airways of the new livery on their BAC-111s – now virtually extinct worldwide.

Still in 1993 Keith Cruttenden, one of the small band of helicopter collectors, featured one of the many assorted views of the BEA and subsequent carriers on the Penzance-Scilly run. Apparently this much postcarded heliport is now to be demolished and operations relocated to Lands End which rather defeats the object of using a helicopter.

Entering 1994 with Issue 8 , there was one of many contributions featuring Imperial Airways. This time it was by then member Donald Holmes who had come to cards via aerophilately. This Argosy is on one of the more common Imperial issue views but you have to check any copies that turn up as there were versions with more than one registration edited onto the original.

Another member at the time was Nico Mulder from Texel in the Netherlands who was one of several members who at some time produced their own cards This one is of Texel airport with unusual subjects a SOCATA Tampico and AT-6 Harvard.

The Editor has always tried to maintain some sort of balance of subject matter which sometimes involves presenting material outside his own sphere. One such in Issue 10 was Phil Munson on the military art cards of publisher Salmon, usually by artist Bannister.This vertical card is a WW2 original showing Navy Grumman Wildcats ( Martlets) in action. Many of these were also reproduced post war.. in the interests of space , always an issue with print, this vertical card is shown on its side.

By contract member Peter Marson was very much on home ground with a selection of Constellations in Issue 11. This airline issue from TWA, then still Transcontinental & Western, is probably the first ever Connie airline issue – being the prototype with USAAF tail code when briefly and unofficialy painted in TWA colours at the instigation of Howard Hughes. Despite its significance it was produced in such numbers as to now have minimal value – although this may not have been the case in Europe without the globalisation of the market by Ebay and the like.

In Issue 12, April 1995 Bill Trower featured the Maia/Marcury composite – a device to achieve range by assisting the take off of a lightweight but heavily fuel-laden mailplane by aerial launch from a modified Empire flying Boat. Its bizarre appearance resulted in many cards at the time including this one from Dutch publisher Vanel

Issue 13 featured our most prolific member/publisher Carl MacQuaide and specifically this 4 view card of the old Birmingham Elmdon terminal. This was the show card for short lived Birmingham Enthusiasts Faiur at Acocks Green. When this ceased Carl himself ran a show at the National Motor Cycle museum for a few years. Although his shows have ceased Carl continues to produce airport cards but due to security paranoia, and probably saleability issues, most are now retrospective cards from old slides.

Bill Baird had been producing the US content of the newsletter since Issue 6 1993 . In #14 the Delta 767 in Olympic colours for Atlanta 1996 was featured. This one is the light blue version – the other print had a purple sky.

In issue 15, Spring 1996 Andy Swanston featured the first Manchester airport at Barton. He used an airview but this card is similar vintage , and due to the airfield being largely frozen in development when replaced by Ringway, this same view can almost be recreated today with the right angle.

Apart from the catalogues, another club related publicatiuon was Phil Munsons book on transatlantic pioneers, illustrated totally from his collection which includes this Dornier Do X published by KLM and also featured in Issue 16.

Issue 17 saw an early version of Worth a second Glance, initially called More Than Meets the Eye. Like many in the series this featured something unusual which the photographer had unwittingly included when taking a postcard view, usually for an airport card. This one is for Lisbon Portela Airport and has included a substantial hoard boarding a French Armagnac airliner of TAI or SAGETA.

All this time Colin Cohen had continued to record new issues and in 18 Winter 1997, one such was an Ansett Australia 747-300 over Sydney. This is shown alongside an L1649 Starliner of Italian line LAI – another example of a type ordered, postcard printed but never operated. After the merger with Alitalia these were diverted to TWA. The card featured in 19 as an example from Greg Smiths Constellation catalogue, then in print but now on line at http://www.imageevent.com/constellationpostcards It is also an over-city view.

In issue 20 Colin Cohen was noting that the new BA colour scheme had not yielded any cards. In fact BA did some cards but only of the various “art tail” designs , not of their application to the fleet. A combination of a hostile reception, notably by the by then ex-Prime Minister Thatcher and the decline of the postcard meant that BA only ever published a few including this 777 in the Delft version of the artwork.

Issue 21 was the last to be edited by Phil. It featured a piece on an Air Atlantique flight by the late Ray Billings and also, in WASG, messages written on board BOAC Solents over Africa, all written on copies of this card with more traditional aviation art by Frank Wooton

My first issue as editor was No 22, March 1998 which established the style and shape which has continued up to now. My first few issues featured an extended article on the life of O P Jones from barnstorming in Avro 504s, through Instone and Imperial to Chief pilot of BOAC. When Imperial was formed in 1924 he was one of the pilots shown on postcards including a pre-printed autograph. This was the cover picture then

and a recently discovered BOAC issue card of him 30 odd years later is on the cover of the last print issue and the lead picture on the cweb version.. This one has a real autograph on the back.

In issue 23 Colin Cohen diverted from his usual track of new issues to feature some of the many cards of the Dutch model village Madurodam or more specifically its airport, a mini Schiphol see here with a selection of model 1960s jetliners.

At this time the Club used to exchange issues and material with a similar organisation in Australia which faded away sometime before our own changes. Issue 24 reproduced one of their articles on the activities and cards of Aircruising Australia. The F27 shown was ex Aer Lingus and the oldest then flying

Issue 25 ventured into social history with the depiction of , mostly female, cabin crew on cards over the years. This card from Chicago & Southern exists in both its original form and a reproduction from a museum of the products of prolific US postcard printer, Curteich. As fitting for the 1940s it shows the era of military style uniforms .

Roger Syratt was clearly still collecting in 1999 and contributed this mystery Constellation at Turin to the What Do You Know feature. It appeared to have the subject of some editing to remove all identification but this missed the striped propeller tips which were a feature of USAF C-121s, probably a VIP version.

In late 1999 the numbering system suffered a blip, June went out as a duplicated 26 instead of 27, 28 went out as 27 with order being restored to 29 in December. In June Colin Cohen featured a si.gn of the times, wide body BA Tristars already out of service and stored at Mojave. This was part of a French set of high quality B&W and Colour images from French publisher Aile B.

In September Graham Cowell re-published his book on the DH Comet. Graham was the photographer of this Gatwick view of the final flight of Dan Air G-BDIW, the last passenger Comet flight, published by fellow member Carl McQuaide

The year, decade,century and millenium ended with issue 29 which featured an article with the same title as this one “ Back to To The Future” featuring projections of future travel such as this Pan Am Card of a future Clipper based on the Convair XC-99. In the next decade many such projections were repeated in the publicity shots of potential Airbus A380 interiors. Meanwhile the supersonic era was on its last legs although Concorde was still flying with its version of the new BA tail colours which was later to go fleet-wide.

Lastly this issue featured one of many contributions from Leonardo Pinzaui whose contributions have not previously been noted. This one featured Itlaian scheduled helicoper operations including those by Elivie S61s from Naples and inter-airport in Milan

Then we had year 2000 , as brief respite before the aviation world was at the centre of the events of Sept 2001 from which it has arguably never recovered. I know exactly where I was when I heard the news – I was at the computer composing Issue 36 !

The cover shot from that issue is shown left below. It epitomises the first peak of popular interest in the glamour and romance of aviation, albeit for most people merely as spectators. It produced many postcards including this Societa Aerea Mediterranea of Italy Savoia Marchetti S.71. Many more would also be produced, like the SAS DC8 below, in the second great boom of the 1960s and 1970s when access was far more widely spread.

All now only surviving in our collections.

Download this section as a .DOC file (right click and 'save target as' ...)
<< Previous .... The Cards Are Out There
	Close this window