“Skyrocket” by Lt. Frank Johnson
ORTH is back! 
Silent Orth had made an enviable record, in the face of one of the worst beginnings—a beginning which had been so filled with boasting that his wingmates hadn’t been able to stand it. But Orth hadn’t thought of all his talk as boasting, because he had invariably made good on it. However, someone had brought home to him the fact that brave, efficient men were usually modest and really silent, and he had shut his mouth like a trap from that moment on.
“It is definitely known that an attempt will be made at that place to bring out a spy,” said Major Messersmith grimly to Silent Orth. “The enemy doesn’t know the identity of the spy. They’ve combed their own ranks, but our man is too well ensconced in his role as a German officer. For all that the Germans know, one of the very patrol officers who seek to guard against the rescue may be the man they wish to uncover. Every German plane within twenty kilometers will be on the watch at that place. It sounds like a job for an armada. But one man must do it. You’re that man, Orth.” From the pages of the April 1935 Sky Fighters, it’s Silent Orth in “Skyrocket!”
Just a Lone Yank Pilot Deep in Hunland—on the Flaming Trail of a Daring Allied Spy!
- Download “Skyrocket” (April 1935, Sky Fighters)
Mosquito Month we have a non-Mosquitoes story from the pen of Ralph Oppenheim. It was always his observer, Jim Evans, who judged the dive, who directed Haskell as the latter worked controls, who told Haskell the precise moment to jerk back his stick and pull up—the same moment when Evans would release the bombs. And due to this uncanny judgment of Evans, and also to Haskell’s flying skill and strength, the two had never failed. Oh, they had been a team—Bomber Dan Haskell, big, husky, two-fisted—and Jim Evans, smaller, but lithe and agile and just as ready for action. An inseparable team, Which co-ordinated like a machine—which could do bombing work as no other unit. With Haskell as reckless pilot, and Evans in the rear as gunner and observer—though he wore a pilot’s full two wings—they had fought their way through all odds, dived upon their target hellbent, and blasted it right off the face of the earth. But Jim had been lost the day before on a run leaving Dan to set off on a daring mission alone—He must bomb bridge K-100 to keep the Germans from advancing on the Allied lines! From the June 1934 issue of Sky Fighters it’s “Mission of Death!”
the third of three Three Mosquitoes stories we’re presenting this month. The Three Mosquitoes disband! The darker side of notoriety rears it’s ugly head—is Kirby a “Glory Grabber” taking all the glory and sharing none of the credit—easily picking off the other’s adversaries out from under them? Does he take Shorty Carn and Lanky Travis for granted? Yes, that inseparable threesome have it out and go their own ways! Each sinking the lowest a man can go without the others—and just as the big German offensive is about to kick off! Can the Kirby, Carn and Travis fix their “Broken Wings” or is this it for the intrepid trio? In what is probably their darkest tale, from the pages of the January 1931 issue of War Birds!
the second of three Three Mosquitoes stories we’re presenting this month. The Three Mosquitoes have been dispatched to the Scottish Highlands to investigate sightings of German Gothas! Equipped with brand new Sopwiths, the Three Mosquitoes take on The Black Raiders and try to fathom how these planes could even be this far from their Fatherland and so perilously close to the shipbuilding yards of Deemsgate! It’s a mystery whose answer lies in the craggy mountains of Scotland!
Mosquitoes—the approach of spring has brought the Mosquitoes out of hibernation to help hurry on the warm summer months ahead. At Age of Aces dot net it’s our fifth annual Mosquito Month! We’ll be featuring that wiley trio in three early tales in the hell skies over the Western Front. And we’re starting things off with a bang! The Germans have developed a new super explosive they’ve called XXX—five time as powerful as the Allies’ most destructive explosives! A boast they demonstrate by wiping the 44th Squadron’s drome off the face of the map! The Three Mosquitoes concoct a perilous plan to sneak into the largest and most well-guarded German munitions plants where the XXX is being manufactured and blow it all to kingdom-come!
That sound can only mean one thing—that Bachelor of Artifice, Knight of Calamity and an alumnus of Doctor Merlin’s Camelot College for Conjurors is back to vex not only the Germans, but the Americans—the Ninth Pursuit Squadron in particular—as well. Yes it’s the marvel from Boonetown, Iowa himself—Lieutenant Phineas Pinkham! 
a story from William E. Poindexter. Poindexter’s work appeared frequently in the supporting pages of the air pulps of the 1930’s. Here, he gives us the tale of Little Ossie Timpkins—who asked nothing more than to be considered a fighting man. But due to his stature, found himself on terminal kitchen duty—until he thinks he found a way to prove to himself and the others that he truly is “A Fighting Man!” From the pages of the May 1932 Flying Aces.
