On Guard

Child-of-the-Fifties and Scouser Ken has written on aviation topics since 1972. He edited Britain’s top-selling aviation monthly, FlyPast, from 1985 in two sessions, totalling 24 years and continues to scribble for the magazine. Outside of FlyPast, he is best known for Wrecks & Relics, the biennial ‘bible’ of the UK preservation movement and produced since 2008 by Crécy. In 2024, having clocked up fifty years and 26 editions - surely some sort of record - he handed over control to David Willis.

As well as W&R, Ken has also penned for Crécy: Lost Aviation Collections of Britain, Great Aviation Collections of Britain, Local Aviation Collection of Britain, the two-volume Testing to the Limits profiling Britain’s test pilots since 1910 and Britain’s Aircraft Industry - Triumphs and Tragedies since 1909. He is author or co-author of a dozen other titles and has many more up his sleeve!

Ken achieved his private pilot’s licence in 1991, driving a variety of ‘puddle-jumpers’ and, very occasionally, bigger metal. Aviation commentary is something he’s enjoyed over the last 30-odd years; his favourite event is the award-winning Old Buckenham Airshow. An avid gardener, Ken is killing less plants year-on-year. He lives and works in the People’s Republic of Rutland with former wing-walker Pam and a cat called Rascal.