The lighter side of Flight International.
Thanks for dropping in
Videos of British paratroopers having to show their passports to French border officials at a makeshift immigration post after dropping into Normandy for the D-Day 80th anniversary celebrations in June got plenty of responses on social media.
Amid the lamentations about Brexit and huffs and puffs about Gallic lack of gratitude was this zinger:
“That’s where the Germans went wrong in 1944. All they had to do to slow down the invasion was set up a desk on the beach with a ‘Queue here’ sign.”
Wait for it
Budgie journo #1: “News has just come in that an airline is signing an MoU for up to 152 aircraft at Farnborough. Any questions we should be asking them?”
Budgie journo #2: “Between the supply chain problems, the delayed ramp-up trajectory, the absence of engines that work, and the fact you’re at the back of an 8,000-aircraft queue, do you expect to get these before, or after, someone invents teleportation?”
Michael Badrocke
With sadness we report the passing of former Flight cutaway artist Mike Badrocke after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s.
He attended the Whitgift School in Croydon, and in 1956 was awarded a Royal Air Force flying scholarship. In 1957 he entered the RAF, and after a brief period of service left in favour of an engineering apprenticeship with de Havilland, after which he worked in the manufacturer’s technical publications department.
He came to IPC Business Press in 1965, and produced cutaways principally for Flight International, his first being the Scottish Aviation Bulldog in April 1970, and his last the Lockheed CP-140 in July 1977. After that last drawing he left to become a freelance. His work began to emerge in Air Enthusiast magazine – he made his debut with the Westland Lynx HAS Mk2, which appeared in April 1976.
He used the pseudonym Aviagraphica for much of his working life and also contributed to a wide range of scientific and transport publications.
From 1983 to 1995 Mike taught illustration part-time at the Ravensbourne College of Design Communication in Bromley, Kent.
He was very prolific and responsible for more aviation cutaways than any other artist in the world.
He leaves behind wife Deidre, daughters Jemma and Lucy, and son Oliver.
Dutch of humour
Martin Leeuwis, one-time Royal Netherlands Air Force Northrop F-5 pilot, KLM Boeing 737 captain, and for more than four decades responsible for a popular series of cartoon and other aviation humour books, is publishing his 40th collection.
Dutch Boys comprises 150 short tales, in English, from 62 of the country’s former fighter pilots, which have previously appeared in Dutch-language compilations. The anecdotes capture the mishaps, misadventures, and sheer marvel of flying everything from a Tiger Moth to a Lockheed Martin F-35 from the Cold War years to the modern era.
208pp, retail price €18.95 plus postage from leeuwispubli.nl
Crunch time
In our May issue we reported on Swedish commercial drone delivery company Aerit’s publicity stunt to mark the country’s accession to NATO – a limited-edition breakfast cereal called NAT-Os, the packaging of which featured a happy hedgehog (unofficial mascot of the alliance) being viewed from behind a hedge by a grumpy bear (guess who that was meant to be?).
But we must now report that branching into foodstuffs was possibly not perhaps the best strategy. On 23 May, the firm filed for bankruptcy, and its assets and intellectual property are being offered for sale. No word on if the recipe for NAT-Os is included.
From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com
