Past Issues

Volume 8, Number 1 - 1st Quarter 2007

LOGBOOK is a quarterly magazine covering the entire spectrum of aviation history, from the first flight to just yesterday. Civil, Military, Airline, General Aviation - We bring you the stories that have rarely or never been published before, told by the people who lived them. If the story is known, we dig to find additional information, documents and photographs to add to the knowledge about the topic. Short stories, sea stories, personal remembrances, in-depth information and simple hangar flying are the kind of unique aviation history you will find in the pages of LOGBOOK.

Back Issue: Available

A Gunner's Diary

Several years ago, while doing research on for a book on the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, I put a listing in selected aviation magazines requesting that former B-24 crewmen please send in a few of their experiences flying the aircraft. One day, in the mail, I received a copy of the diary of Staff Sergeant John Butler along with a note saying: “Here you go, do with it as you wish, no need to send it back.”
Some time later I decided that this diary would be a great magazine article. To that end, and without changing the content or the “feel” of the diary, I did some minor editing and turned it into a more narrative format. My thanks to John Butler - this is his story. Rhodes F. Arnold

Mike and Me

For 78-year-old Frederick Novinger Jr., flight was neither a childhood dream nor something he really wanted to do. He’ll tell you straight out, “Unlike about a million other kids in the ‘30s, I didn’t dream about flying. It wasn’t even in the cards.” This would have been understandable considering the state of a 1936 Depression-burdened America – slim on hope and opportunity, but was odd in Fred’s case, considering his father was a pioneer airline pilot that worked for an aviation legend.
Fred Jr’s father actually worked with two aviation legends – husband and wife pilots Benny and Maxine “Mike” Howard. Through the use of extensive interviews, author Steve Hanshew – himself a friend of Fred Jr. – tells the story of when young Fred Jr. was kid, and he counted the Howards as his good friends. This is a fine account from the Golden Age of aviation.

High Wire Act

Captain James H. Brodie: I was both outraged and dismayed at what was happening to our ships both close to shore and in the North Atlantic by the tenacious, unrelenting Nazi U-Boats. I then took matters into my own hands. Having done a lot of marine structural design before the war, I came up with the idea of the Brodie Rig.
Although I wasn’t a pilot at the time, I had about 2 to 3 hours in a Piper Cub and thought that a plane of this size would work. My idea was very simple and straightforward. I thought, why not attach a plane to each ship via tight steel cable and sling, and these planes could then patrol in and around the convoys looking for subs.
With first hand interviews, author James P. Busha tells the story of Captain Brodie's innovative rig.