Grapevine - Preservation news from Michael Oakey

TailleSS triumph - An ancestor of today's Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is back in the air, 50 years after its first flight. Report and pictures by Frank B. Mormillo

Douglas Commercial Four - Mike Hardy explains how the DC-4E prototype ended up as a Japanese bomber

Parasol perfection - Richard Paver brings the story of Morane-Saulnier MS.230 G-AVEB up to date

VincentS in Service - Owen Thetford recounts the Service life of the Vickers Vincent

"Father of the Buccaneer" - Former Blackburn Aircraft chief engineer Roy Boot presents a designer's perspective on the capable and long-serving carrier strike aircraft

Military personal album - Ray cooper's photographs of Iraqi Air Force Hawker Sea Furies

Great moments in aviation - jean Batten's 1936 England?New Zealand record flight in Percival Gull Six G-ADPR

Hovering towards the Kestrel - The Hawker P.1127, progenitor of the Kestrel and Harrier, is the subject of Barry Jones's latest article on British post-war experimental jets

The MaJUnga raid - Roy Nesbit opens a two-part account of a South African Air Force Beaufort crew's part in Allied operations which foiled German and Japanese plans to gain a foothold in Madagascar in 1942

Crosswind - More asides and broadsides from John Maynard

Preservation profile - Melvyn Hiscock traces the history ofAuster III MT438/G-AREI

Spitfire anatomy - S.J.Paine concludes his engineering history of the Supermarine Spitfire and Seafire with descriptions of the Spitfires XVIII, PR.XIX, 21, 22 and 24, and the Seafires XVII, 45 and 46/47

Imperial adventurer - Harry Morris concludes his recollections of pioneering Imperial Airways' West Africa route

Anything tO anywhere - Former Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pilot Ann Welch recalls just one eventful month's work in 1942

Fathers of world aviation - Ken Aitken caricatures Russian designer Sergei Vladimirovich llyushin

Camera On the Wing - Former Temple Press photographer Maurice Rowe concludes his recollections of working for The Aeroplane when it was a weekly news magazine

Copetition - This month's Diversions page features 7JL the chance to win a flight in a North American Harvard

Front Cover - FRANK MORMILLO photographed the newly-restored Air Museum "Planes of Fame" Northrop N9M-B flying wing during its test flights late last year - see Tailless triumph on pages 6-9 of this issue