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Propliners Enthusiast Color Series by Clinton H Groves
Propliners Enthusiast Color Series by Clinton H Groves
Soft Cover
96 pages
Copyright 1994
CONTENTS
Dedication6
Introduction 7
Chapter 1From Wood to Metal11
Chapter 2After the War37
Chapter 3The Glory Years53
Chapter 4Fall from Grace83
AppendixSources95
Index96
INTRODUCTION
December 2003 marks the 100-year / anniversary of powered flight. We've come a long way in that time. This book will try to take you back to those early days, from a time when flying really was dangerous, through and beyond the times that the Douglas, Martin, Boeing and Lockheed piston-powered giants were in their prime. As this is a color photo essay, the photos of the old airplanes are of restored aircraft. Kodachrome color slide film became available to the public around 1937. With an exposure index of only 10 and the best 35mm camera of the day being an Argus C3 with an f3.5 lens, daylight photography required the use of a tripod. The photo arrangement herein, except for the last chapter, is chronologically by first flight date. The slides will usually show the airframes as they appeared a few years later with more modern paint schemes and/or weather radar added.
For those who never experienced this era I regret that there are no words to adequately describe the smells, sounds, and sensations of flying with radial engines, oil leaks, volatile high octane aviation fuels, massive three- or four-blade propellers, and handwritten tickets. The age was as different in the air as it was on the ground where coal-fired steam locomotives belched black smoke and steam and railroad waiting rooms were filled with cigar smoke.
I obtained many of the slides used in this book when I purchased the working collection of Thompson Productions of Beecher, Illinois. I obtained others through trades or outright purchase. Collecting these images has not been an easy task; people just don't want to give up their slides. The TWA DC-3 shot cost me $500, and I obtained it only after two years of begging and raising my offer.
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