Old Magazines with Michael John, #5: Ford’s Failure in Form and Function

By Michael John Jaeger, volunteer docent Over 700 aircraft models were certified in the United States during the 1920s and 30s.  Some are still well known today, but most are forgotten to history.  Many companies tried their hand in the aircraft business; some of their creations were good, some not

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Old Magazines with Michael John, #4: Early 1932 in Four Graphs

By Michael John Jaeger, volunteer docent The March 1932 issue of Aviation magazine is a mass of numbers and figures, in an attempt to portray the state of aviation at of the start of 1932.  39 pages of tables, graphs and text. 90 YEARS AGO:  Illinois has more aviation than

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Old Magazines with Michael John, no. 3: Airplanes Earning Their Keep

by Michael John Jaeger What does dropping pens out of an airplane in Europe in the 1930s have to do with the history of aviation in southern Wisconsin? Read on for some thoughts.  Last month I looked at the U.S. air mail system in early 1922.  Air mail was one

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Old Magazines with Michael John, no. 2: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…”

By Michael John Jaeger, volunteer docent and historian The role that airmail played in the development of aviation in the United States is highlighted at the Kelch Aviation Museum.  This month I’ll explore how the airmail system looked at the start of 1922, a time the system was still young,

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Old Magazines with Michael John, no. 1: Make Air Travel More Convenient!

I’m Michael John, a new volunteer docent at the Kelch Aviation Museum – and I’m “hooked” on old magazines, especially old airplane magazines. I thought I’d combine this compulsion with learning more about the Golden of Age of Aviation, and the rapid developments of aircraft uses and design throughout that

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