Past Issues

Volume 10, Number 1 - 1st Quarter 2010

LOGBOOK is a quarterly magazine covering the entire spectrum of international aviation history, from the first tentative attempts at flight, to history that was made just yesterday.

LOGBOOK is a distinctive publication in the field of aviation history. At LOGBOOK we certainly enjoy bringing you in-depth articles written by some of the world’s premier aviation historians. More importantly, however, we also enjoy working with, actively encouraging and publishing the first-time, one-time and fledgling author. These are the folks who actually lived the aviation history they are writing about, which lets the reader experience the action from a unique perspective. This allows LOGBOOK to bring you aviation history you will find no other place.

Back Issue: Available

A Trojan Story

When the military retires an aircraft its future destination is more than likely the scrap yard. Unfortunate, but true.
As a young U.S. Navy Ensign, Dave Powers was assigned to fly a North American T-28B Trojan on what was thought to be its last flight – from NAS Corpus Christi, Texas to the boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona. This particular Trojan – BuNo 138242 – managed to escape the scrapper’s torch and is still flying today.
This article chronicles the aircraft’s history after being retired from active duty. Not an over-restored hangar queen, this aircraft is essentially the same aircraft the Navy flew. It still sports the same paint it had in the Navy, as well as the same engine and virtually the same cockpits. It is a great example of an aircraft that trained literally thousands of young Student Naval Aviators, including the author.

Pan Am - Flying Central America

Not a cloud in the sky, but we were forced to fly by instruments in our Pan Am propeller planes over Central America, where a dense haze blotted out the world. Water droplets clung to the smoky exhalation of volcanoes, and warmer air over cooler ground caused the filmy yellowish smog to squat on the ground and thicken up to 11,000 feet. This was Central America in the winter.
Retired Pan Am pilot Bill Nash recounts his years of flying throughout Central America, flying DC-3s, DC-4s and C-46s in the late 1940s and 1950s. This is great reading about a time before GPS, Flight Management Systems and glass cockpits

Memories of First Lieutenant Robert J. Nachel - Part 2

We are pleased to present the memoirs of Robert Nachel, which he penned several years after the war. A special thanks goes to his daughter Robin for providing the manuscript, her father’s photographs and the following biography.
Robert James Nachel was born in 1923, in Chicago, Illinois, one of 7 seven children born to an American father - John Nachel, and an Irish mother - Johanna Leddin. Like many young men of the day, Bob signed up with the military shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, eventually going on to fly the Martin B-26 Marauder in the skies over occupied Europe.
Bob Nachel was one of the many thousands of young American men and women who fought for their country in World War Two, becoming known as The Great Generation. This is his story, in his own words.