TY - JOUR
T1 - The meaning of Hendon
T2 - the Royal Air Force Display, aerial theatre and the technological sublime, 1920-37
AU - Holman, Brett
N1 - Funding Information:
* For their advice and assistance, the author would like to thank the following: Peter Hobbins,Thomas Kehoe, James Kightly, Ross Mahoney, Cathy Schapper, Dorthe Gert Simonsen and Monica Walsh (R.A.A.F. Museum). Part of this research was supported by University of New England Research Seed Grant 19261. 1 The only detailed studies of the R.A.F. Display are D. E. Omissi,‘The Hendon Air Pageant, 1920–1937’, in Popular Imperialism and the Military, ed. J. M. MacKenzie (Manchester, 1992), pp. 198–220; D. Oliver, Hendon Aerodrome: a History (Shrewsbury, 1994); see also P. Adey, Aerial Life: Spaces, Mobilities,Affects (Chichester, 2010), pp. 57–64. 2 Flight, 8 July 1926, p. 399.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - The annual Royal Air Force Display at Hendon was a hugely popular form of aerial theatre, with attendance peaking at 195,000. Most discussions of Hendon have understood it as ‘a manifestation of popular imperialism’, focusing on the climactic set‐pieces which portrayed the bombing of a Middle Eastern village or desert fortress. However, scenarios of this kind were a small minority of Hendon’s set‐pieces: most depicted warfare against other industrialized states. Hendon should rather be seen as an attempt to persuade spectators that future wars could be won through the use of airpower rather than large armies or expensive navies.
AB - The annual Royal Air Force Display at Hendon was a hugely popular form of aerial theatre, with attendance peaking at 195,000. Most discussions of Hendon have understood it as ‘a manifestation of popular imperialism’, focusing on the climactic set‐pieces which portrayed the bombing of a Middle Eastern village or desert fortress. However, scenarios of this kind were a small minority of Hendon’s set‐pieces: most depicted warfare against other industrialized states. Hendon should rather be seen as an attempt to persuade spectators that future wars could be won through the use of airpower rather than large armies or expensive navies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083056403&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/hisres/htz001
DO - 10.1093/hisres/htz001
M3 - Article
SN - 0950-3471
VL - 93
SP - 131
EP - 152
JO - Historical Research
JF - Historical Research
IS - 259
ER -