24 | FLIGHTPATH
Personal Effects
The Vandersarl
Blériot
Exceptional for having survived
a full century, largely intact, the
Vandersarl Blériot is one of very
few original aircraft to survive
from aviation’s pioneering days.
This handsome coffee table
book designed by Javier Arran-
go and Flightpath contributor
Philip Makanna commemorates
the restoration of the Vander-
sarl Bleriot XI and completes
the story of two Denver boys
building a flying machine in
- Lavishly illustrated period
images, reproduced diagrams
and original plans are comple-
mented by photographer
Makanna’s studio quality imag-
es. The work follows how it
came into being, was first
flown, later preserved and how
the dream was fulfilled over a
century later. As Javier says;
“when the Blériot arrived in
California, its journey through
one hundred years was evident.
Components were missing, met-
al parts were rusted and its
wood was old and twisted. But
its soul was intact”. We can fol-
low the daunting task of re-
building, from scratch, the one-
of-a-kind engine that exactly
replicates the Vandersarl’s orig-
inal inline powerplant. The
Vandersarl Blériot restoration
project was completed by Javier
Arango in late 2012, and he took
it back into the air for its first
and successful flight on 12 No-
vember 2012. The Vandersarl
Blériot XI is the only flyable air-
craft of this genre, and it may
also be the oldest American-
built airplane that still flies.
‘Javier’s Blériot. A Limited Edi-
tion’ each book is autographed
by Philip Makanna. (Reviewer:
Rob Fox)
Javier Arango & Philip
Makanna, US$30.00 plus
P&P GHOSTS,
http://www.ghosts.com
Crosswinds
- life on the
wing
A key member of the Flightpath
team, Ron Watts, has released
his autobiography in co-opera-
tion with Mission Aviation Fel-
lowship (MAF) where he has
worked and flown for most of
his life. This has been, as Ron
notes, a remarkably rewarding
and much travelled life in mis-
sion flying for MAF. They are a
worldwide Christian organisa-
tion that provides aviation,
communications, and learning
technology services to more
than 1,000 Christian and hu-
manitarian agencies, as well as
thousands of isolated mission-
aries and indigenous villagers
in the world’s most remote are-
as, and obviously depends on
people to undertake a remarka-
ble mix of tasks requiring a
unique skill set, attitude and re-
ligious calling.
Ron’s book is (at the risk of
stating the obvious) in many
ways a particularly Australian
story, with an engagement with
the wide brown land that many
Australians can relate to,
though many fewer have real –
or as extensive – outback expe-
rience as Ron. One essential ele-
ment for Ron, however is the
role of Christianity in his life as
well as that of aviation, and a
passionate devotion to worth-
while good works. The book
goes from Ron’s childhood
through many remarkable and
varied experiences right up to
(and beyond) his successful
record attempt ‘every6m-
inutes’ in 2011, as documented
in Flightpath Vol.23 No.1. Like
Ron in real life, the book is astraight, modest, but clear and
engaging account of interesting
times and experiences lived to
the full and with his faith. Read-
ers should find it inspiring. (Re-
viewer: James Kightly)
Ron Watts $15.00, includes
P&P, Mission Aviation
Fellowship (MAF) Austral-
ia, http://www.maf.org.au Pro-
ceeds from sale of this book
support the work of MAF.Hidden
Warbirds II
The adventure of hunting for
hidden treasures has always
conjured up romantic notions of
risk and reward, none more so
for our readers than the thrill
associated with W.W.II warbird
discoveries. This work is an at-
tractive follow-up to the ac-
claimed Hidden Warbirds
book, in which the author fur-
ther explores the romance and
the stories behind some of the
most celebrated wrecks and re-
coveries of more recent times.
As with volume one, this is a
great read which again covers a
wide variety of warbirds, plac-
es, people. In this sequel, wreck
discoveries and recoveries in-
clude the P-47 Dotty Mae, lifted
from depths of a lake in Austria;
a Junkers 88 recovered from the
icy waters of Norway; the Aus-
tralian Iron Range P-40, and a
host of others, including some
that were not so hidden! All
chapters benefit greatly from
the quality photographic repro-
duction of the before and after,
and historic images of the large
array of recovered aircraft.Over 150 photographs, de-
picting more than 20 warbird
stories, document the history
of each featured aircraft. Span-
ning the worldwide warbird res-
toration movement, Hidden
Warbirds II successfully hon-
ours those that have invested
(and risked) time and money
recovering and restoring war-
birds, and shows how they have
helped expand the understand-
ing of W.W.II aviation history.
(Reviewer: Rob Fox)
Nicholas A. Veronico,
US$30, Zenith Press,
http://www.zenithpress.comNight Cats &
Corsairs – The
Operational
History of
Grumman and
Vought Night
Fighter Aircraft
While the history of the Grum-
man F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat
and Vought F4U Corsair has
been very well recorded and re-
counted over the years, the
specialised night fighter vari-
ants of these types have gener-
ally been given a short note at
the end of the account of the
better-documented earlier ver-
sions. This is usually because
the aircraft were (very obvi-
ously) operated at night, but
were also obscured for other
reasons: like many other tech-
nological advances in aviation,
the development and entry to