ABOUT FLIGHT RECORDER

BARRY KETLEY
Barry Ketley's awareness of things aeronautical began when his father took him to a Battle of Britain display at RAF Leconfield where he was placed in the seat of an RAuxAF Vampire. Even to a small boy of five, it seemed to be a miniature aircraft. When, after much pestering, his father produced a painting of a fighter finished in green and brown camouflage 'like in the war, Dad' he inadvertantly triggered a lifelong curiosity into why aircraft look like they do.

One of Messrs Airfix's earliest customers, the weekly trip to Woolworths for the latest kit spurred the collecting bug and the need to know more about the real machines. After finding that very few RAF pilots wear thick bifocals, a career as a designer of stores, exhibitions and offices helped to support his ever-expanding collection of aviation material. Occasional leaps into, and on a number of never-to-be forgotten occasions, out of perfectly serviceable aeroplanes in flight, sustained his interest until he was persuaded by his Japanese wife to 'write something about aeroplanes'. She could never have guessed what she was starting!

TED WINKLER

Born in Hamburg in December 1920, Eduard (Ted) Winkler has had a lifelong enthusiasm for aviation, fostered by an appprenticeship with the German aircraft and shipping firm, Blohm and Voss, and much hard work in the DLV, followed by call-up into the Luftwaffe in 1942 as an armourer. After recall to Germany in summer 1944 to help install cannons into Messerschmitt Me 262 jets, he was returned to active duty as a paratrooper, in which role he was captured on the banks of the Rhine at Winnekendonk on 2 March 1945. Brought to England as a prisoner in 1946, he was finally released on New Year's Eve, 1948. He has remained and worked in England ever since, still enjoying his interest in researching and writing about aviation. He now has a major role within Flight Recorder scanning photographs, researching various aviation topics and translating obscure German military documents into readable English. He is also the author of 'A Civilian Affair'.