Vintage Aero Writer

About JDK

2009-07-22T20:25:00.001-07:00

James Kightly is a professional writer and journalist covering vintage aviation. He currently writes columns for several magazines and is one of the team running an aviation book publishing company.

Known as 'JDK' on numerous internet forums, some of the writing arising from these discussions, and background or further material relating to these topics will be presented here.

James has written and edited in many other fields as well as aviation. He is always interested in discussing possible commissions.

In the future,a selection of some of the rare and unusual aircraft James has written about will be presented in a gallery here.

See the other pages featuring his work here: Aeroplane magazine, Flightpath magazine, and MMP Books.

Flightpath Magazine

2009-07-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

James is one of two Contributing Editors for Flightpath magazine, working closely with Editor Rob Fox writing many of the main features along with the other contributing editor Michael Claringbould, as well as picture research, fact checking, proof reading and also commissioning and gathering material and articles from all over the world.

A selection of feature articles includes the history of the RAF Long Range Unit Wellesleys, the de Havilland Comets, Bell's designs, Shark Mouth Fighters and Merlin P-40s among many others.

The Flightpath website: http://www.yaffa.com.au/cmag/fph.html

MMP Books

2009-07-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

James is the Business Manager for MMP Books, an aviation and military book publisher, and is one of the founding team.

MMP went into book publication in 1999, and since then have built up a list of books on aircraft and aviation history, plus military vehicles and military history. Books on naval topics are coming soon! MMP books are sold around the world, and have received great critical acclaim. The MMP emphasis is on well researched and written books, with top-quality photos and artwork, printed to a high standard but still affordable.

James brings his twenty years of book trade experience to developing the MMP list. He has edited and sub-edited numerous titles, commissioned and guided authors, undertaken picture research and, not least written two of the MMP books, both very popular titles, on the Westland Lysander and the Supermarine Walrus & Stranraer, as well as having more titles forthcoming .

MMP Books website: http://mmpbooks.biz/

Aeroplane magazine

2009-07-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

James is the author of the monthly feature Aircrew in Aeroplane Magazine which spotlights a specific role undertaken by different aircraft crew members in history. This is a collaboration with professional illustrator Ian Bott which has been very successful for the magazine.

James has written for the magazine’s main technical history feature, Database, collaborating with Allan King on the Short Sunderland and writing the Vickers Vimy Database on his own. This feature is intended to cover the complete history of a type in a compact, readable format.

James has also written feature articles on various topics, such as the Brussels Air Museum, the RAAF Museum, and the restoration of a PR.XVI Mosquito, as well as regular news items.

He was the monthly columnist for Observers’ Notes over a two year period a successful ‘think piece’ in the magazine to provoke comment and to examine some of the detail behind the obvious stories.

Aeroplane website: http://www.aeroplanemonthly.co.uk/

Contact!

2009-07-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

The Avro Tutor at the Shuttleworth Collection.

To contact James, please e-mail at JKightly AT yahoo.com.au replacing the 'AT' with the '@' symbol as normal. (I'm not on Facebook, Twitter or similar social media.)