Fun Times Ahead

With the start of the new Academic Year I’ve been a little remiss in posting.  Part of my distraction has been because I’ve been researching the story of Lt. Col. Montagu Reaney Chidson, the pilot of the Vickers FB.5 involved in the very first air combat over the United Kingdom in December 1914.  It’s quite a story, and getting it into any kind of order may take a while.

In the meantime one of my colleagues at Pittsburg State University, Dr. John Daley, is teaching a course on the History of Military Aviation,  which I just had to join, so I’m in there auditing it.   The textbook we’re using is James L. Stokesbury’s  A Short History of Air Power. (London: Hale, 1986).   It’s an entertaining book, and contains a few things with which I have had the luxury of disagreeing.  John Daley calls these texts a “beer and popcorn” read.  So I wanted to show I was ready.    I don’t like popcorn too much but this seems to be less of a problem.

Here we go then.

Accompanied by a few cans of the Tallgrass Brewery’s product, (I hope they can re-commence operations soon), is my copy of Stokesbury, James L. A Short History of Air Power. London: Hale, 1986.