British WWI Early RAF Album and Ephemera Group (1926 & 1928)

This is an exceptional and highly detailed group of ephemera centred around two meticulously compiled hard card albums, offering a remarkable visual history of the early years of the Royal Air Force between the wars. The albums were clearly created by an avid and accomplished aviation enthusiast.

The 1928 RAF Air Pageant Album

The album features a paper label marked ‘HENDON’ on the cover. Upon opening, it beautifully displays images cut from the RAF Air Pageant 1928 programme, including the iconic Schneider Trophy seaplanes. The album is fully annotated and contains 65 images of all the up-to-date RAF fighter and bomber planes of the period.

The opening image sets the scene, showing their Majesties the King and Queen of England welcoming the King and Queen of Spain arriving at the pageant in their large vehicle. The album continues with close-up images of individual aeroplanes, all annotated below. There are many ground-to-air shots of RAF Bomber Squadrons flying in formation, fully described with annotations such as: ‘Low bomb attack demonstration showing how swift the machines are carried out’ (referencing the aircraft known as The Fairy Felix), and ‘A good attack on an enemy oil refinery’ with images of aircraft attacking balloons. The owner, who was a very accomplished artist, included beautifully hand-drawn examples of air attacks interspersed between the photographs.

The end of the album features a wonderful large-format close-up of the Schneider Trophy Cup winner’s aircraft, annotated ‘Supermarine S5 seaplane fitted with special racing Napier Lion engine on which Flight Lieutenant Webster AFC won the Schneider Trophy at the record speed of 281.6 miles an hour.’ The annotation correctly notes that it was from this aircraft that, ten years later, the Supermarine Spitfire evolved.

The 1928 album is accompanied by the official programme from the day, which includes the programme of flying events and is a historical document in itself.

The 1926 Pageant Album

Also included is the 1926 pageant album, constructed by the owner in the same detailed manner. The interior covers feature small-format images of both the King and Queen, and the album also opens with their Majesties arriving. This volume contains 63 images of aircraft, all beautifully annotated below with full explanations of types of planes and bomber planes.

Noteworthy contents include an excellent hand-drawn map of Africa showing the route of the Cape Town to Cairo air race, which English flyers achieved in 1926/27. There are also images of a demonstration of low bombing on the airfield with First World War tanks drawn below, and a very rare shot of an autogiro—one of the world’s first helicopters. Other images depict the shooting down of balloons, aircraft performing loops and rolls, and a demonstration of an air attack on London. In large format are images of the ill-fated airship R101, and an image of the Graf Zeppelin at Cardington in Bedfordshire.

The 1926 album is also accompanied by its programme of events. The spine has been repaired.

This fine pair of albums, beautifully illuminated in both script and drawn images, shows all the different types of aircraft being used by the Royal Air Force in the middle 1920s. The whole group is in excellent overall condition.

Ref; 95210