Leonard Bridgman was the editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft

Jane's All the World's Aircraft

Jane's All the World's Aircraft is an aviation annual publication founded by Fred T. Jane in 1909. It is published by Jane's Information Group....

 from 1941 to 1959.

First assignment

Bridgman's first assignment in aviation was in 1913, aged 18, when one of his drawings was used to illustrate the Hendon Air Race

Air racing

- History :The first ever air race was held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1908. The participants piloted the only 4 airships in the U.S. around a course located at Forest Park...

 programme. As payment, he received a flight in a 70 hp Maurice Farman

Maurice Farman

Maurice Alain Farman was a French Grand Prix motor racing champion, an aviator, and an aircraft manufacturer and designer.-Biography:...

 biplane

Biplane

A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

.

Career in the army

During the First World War, Bridgman served as an officer in the Honourable Artillery Company

Honourable Artillery Company

The Honourable Artillery Company was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII. Today it is a Registered Charity whose purpose is to attend to the “better defence of the realm"...

.

Journalism career

He is best remembered within the aviation industry as the journalist who joined C G Grey in 1923 on the staff of Jane's All the World's Aircraft after working on the staff at The Aeroplane.

Awards

In 1956 in recognition of his contribution to technology, principally his work on Jane's All the World's Aircraft, Bridgman was awarded a Paul Tissandier Diploma by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. By that time, he had been associated with flying and publishing for 43 years.

Career as an artist

Bridgman was also a talented artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

and produced many aviation paintings, wash drawings and illustrations. He received commissions for numerous advertisements for British companies and illustrated Oliver Stewart's text for The Clouds Remember, one of the classics of aviation literature.