The first issue included a cool poster 'Fighting Aircraft of the World', which was immediately pasted on to my wall and hung there for several years, until the advent of Star Wars in 1977 and it was probably displaced with space and sci-fi material. While I was sifting through some boxes in the loft, sorting out my dads catalogues, I discovered it, neatly folded away - albeit dog eared and covered in gaffer tape - where he had obviously reclaimed it from the bedroom floor as Darth Vader moved in, and secreted it in his cupboard on the landing, where everything displaced, invariably ended up. Thanks Dad!
It was always fascinating to me, as it included (the then) radical new russian fighters such as the Foxbat and Flogger designations, which I had never heard of and the wonderful A-10 Warthog which had recently arrived on the scene and would grace the cover of the second Speed & Power annual in spectacular fashion.
The other big draw for me were the regular instalments of classic Arthur C. Clarke science fiction stories, with wonderful illustrations, such as 'Journey to Jupiter' and 'Sunjammer'.
I think I might have bought the first few as a lad, but I recently bought a complete set of Speed & Power - plus binders - and the annuals! from eBay. I'm looking forward to ploughing through them. Lots of nice illustrations and interesting articles.
ReplyDeleteThats the beauty of a limited run, its attainable. Ive only got the annuals left now and the gorgeous artwork from the scifi stories in the back, which I cut out! Bill
DeleteThat was not a magazine I knew, until it was merged with Look and Learn. I had originally been a reader of World of Wonder, until that too had been merged in to Look and Learn.
ReplyDeleteDamn you look and learn! It also swallowed up Tell Me Why too, I suspect! Bill
DeleteI bought it regularly -- mainly for the superb aircraft illustrations -- but also they ran Science Fiction stories at the back of the magazine -- some of the longer ones in serial form. I remember work by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke featuring -- and I'm pretty sure some of them were illustrated by Ron Embleton.
ReplyDeleteIt also ran a feature on SPACE: 1999 prior to its debut -- which I still have somewhere.
Dal C.
Oh yes! Living in Australia, this was just the ticket for a young teenager! I had the complete set of Speed and Power until the title was folded into Look and Learn.
ReplyDeleteI used to love Wiif Hardy's aircraft paintings. I distinctly remember a sci-fi styled article on a Japanese jet powered transport, that glided between roller pads on a series of concrete towers!
I recall that beautiful train looey - cant put my hand on the actual issue it was in - possibly the first annual.
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