James D Kightly

@jdkightly.bsky.social

1223 Followers 970 Following

Does history - not an historian. Does aviation - not a pilot. Writes, reads, learns, communicates. Aviation Cultures Conferences. Interested in many things. Freelance. No AI. He/him. Aviation content based at: https://vintageaerowriter.wordpress.com/

The original crews test fitted. Heller didn't provide crews, but flying posed models need them! Bloch in the foreground. Models and photo by James Kightly.
Photo of the two models in the open sun on their bases. Models and photo by James Kightly.
Photo of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Bloch MB 174 'in flight' thanks to a little post processing. Photo and model by James Kightly.
Photo of the Bréguet 693 model on the grass. Photo and model by James Kightly.
Photo of the fuselages of the two models test fitted together.
Photo of the model aircraft 'flying' over distant trees. Both model and photo by James Kightly.
Photo of the model on a brass rod that fits onto a glass and brass base. Classy, I hope, not brassy.
Phot of the model with the wheels down, engines and vertical tail added temporarily.
Photo of a model with blue tape holding the wing dihedral and tape holding the fuselage haves together.
Set of photos of the older James Stewart at a derelict airfield he'd flown from in WWII. Title 'James Stewart - aviator'.
A photo of an artwork featuring Google's 'Don't be evil' on a wall.
Photo of Stewart as Lindbergh in front of a Ryan replicating the 'Spitit of St Louis' aircraft.
Cover and details of my The Aviation Historian article on Stewart in Issue 50.
James Stewart, seen here sitting on the railing of a USAAF watch office during his service with the US military against German in WWII. As a combat airmen bore the weight of genuine senior combat command. He came home aged.
Three decal packs, as mentioned Bloch 174, Aéronavale adaptable roundels and Breguet decals. But wait!
Photo of a grey model showing the partly painted figures.
The Goose meme. The goose asks: "WHAT ARE THE CITATIONS THERE FOR THEN?" and "WHAT ARE THEY FOR?"
Cover image of the mentioned book.
Photo of a book, the one listed in the shared message, Rowan Thompson’s ‘Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain’, in front of a bookcase of other books.
Photo of the fwd section of two model aircraft in grey, with crew figures inserted.
1918 dazzle camouflage experiment with a Sopwith Camel fuselage standing on its wheels. The wheels have black and white spirals painted on. The fin and rudder has been painted with a shorter, smaller rudder on it, the fuselage has an ovoid roundel and open boxes on the side of uncertain perspective. The cowling has an edge painted to throw off the perspective. The idea was to trick enemy pilots into giving too little “lead” when aiming. The spiral patterned wheel covers are mean to help spoil pilots’ aim. Origin unclear, copies likely in the IWM collection.
Photo of two open model kit boxes, Breguet 693 and Bloch MB 174 from Heller, with a phone showing 6.55 on 1 May 2026.
Photo of the opened box of a Heller 1/72 Breguet 693 kit showing the kit, instructions and excellent box art.
Photograph of some leaves on a deck with raking shadows.
Cover of the Database section in Aeroplane in July 2024 by James Kightly on the Dornier Do 24.
Photo of two book covers, one 'Women with Wings : Female Flyers in Fact and Fiction' by Mary Cadogan, the other 'Camouflage Australia : Art, Nature Science and War' by Ann Elias.
Eisenhower with the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1959). Via Wiki.
Picture of two chocolate Easter bilbies, one milk, one dark. One has a missing bottom, the other missing ears...
Photo entitled 'Wellesleys Over Egypt'.
A picture of a flying man wearing a full, brassy looking metal helmet, leather jacket and a rocket pack, saluting the viewer...
The cover of the Vickers Wellesley Database by James Kightly (your host here, too, and the cover of the full magazine 'Aeroplane' from October 2025, still available from Key Publishing.
Three images of the Wellesley prototype. Sans canopies, sans undercarriage doors and sans paint.
The meme of a schoolgirl holding a tuba bell over the head of another schoolgirl. The holder is marked 'Every Company', the tuba 'Unwanted AI' and the girl inside the bell 'You'. It's all forcing unwanted AI.
Photograph of an aircraft, a Spitfire small, against a landscape, approaching to land.
Photograph of a CAC Mustang fighter landing and at speed with (replica) bombs and rockets underwing.
Period French photo of a Deperdussin monoplane showing the spoke wheel arrangement and the smooth tyres.
Photo showing the angle of a DHC Tiger Moth's undercarriage, and the tailwheel, vs...
A photograph of the prototype Spitfire showing its tailskid.
An ordinary looking man with round glasses and lighting a pipe looks off to the right of the camera. It's Raymond Chandler, now sit up and pay attention.
Image showing a portrait of Susan Kare, and a selection of her Apple Mac logos.
'Charlotte Holzer working on the glass dress from the collection of the Deutsches Museums.'
A photograph of a large, 1/12? Scale cardboard race car on top of a Kit Kat display.
Three book covers, featuring Helen Doe's 'Stanford Tuck, Hero of the Battle of Britain, and two books 'Piece of Cake' and 'How they Made Piece of Cake'.
Four books. From left ‘Stanford Tuck by Helen Doe; in the middle ‘Wings on my Sleeve’ by Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown and ‘Fly for your Life’ by Larry Forrester. On the right ‘Winkle’ by Paul Beaver. Both modern bios show much of what is in the period autobiography and biography to be myth. Find out more at our webinar Spotlight event with Aviation Cultures!
Walter Matthau and Audrey Hepburn walking down a Paris street, impeccably dressed, in 1963’s ‘Charade’.
File photo from a previous event of James Kightly, sitting in front of a bookcase, obviously talking into a computer.
A photo of a page spread of The Vintage Aviation Echo, photo with my text and overlaid with a Martin Mars lanyard in red, tech drawings in the background, and a Martin Mars mug. Marsworld!
Black and white photo of a man and a woman holding Hands Across The Table (the name of the movie) Carole Lombard and Fred McMuray, 1935.
Photo of the Model Fw 200 'flying' over the countryside. Photo and model by James Kightly.
Photo of the model Fw 200 Condor on its base with a white background. Photo and model by James Kightly.
Photo of the not quite completed model at 8.15 pm local time, with the windows in the wet, white PVA alike Kristal Kleer. Model by James Kightly.
Close up photo of a model aircraft, with the propellers going around. Text on the aircraft reads 'Focke Wulf Condor'. Photo and model by James Kightly.
The Fw 200 model seen over a gravel background. It's mainly a black and some blue lump thanks to the masking and spraying state of affairs. By James Kightly.
Six panel images of a TV clip from Magnum p.i. ‘The Joro Kill’ where Magnum realises that nuns don’t work on Sunday and shoots the fake nun after (s)he tries to shoot Magnum. There are people who try and explain that nuns do work on Sunday, and these people can’t be helped. Also for the series title card, p.i. was in lower case. There is, of course much more trivia and pedantry.
A man in a suit is about to remove his sunglasses, sitting at a train dining table facing a blonde woman and holding a cocktail. He's Cary Grant playing Roger Thornhill.