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According to my mother, the first word I said was "airplane" ("oh-pane") at around 11 months of age when a P-38 flew over the park we were in. I've had a love affair with airplanes and the people who are involved with airplanes ever since, which has become my career as an aviation historian and author.

I built my first model, a Strombecker all-wood P-80 (that dates me!) at age 6, after watching my father build other wood models for me. I quickly graduated to plastic models when I found Mr. Twist's Fix-It Shop on South Gaylord Street in Denver, with its corner shelves full of wondrous kit boxes. I built my first biplane (a Hawk Models Nieuport 17 - still available from Testors) before I was old enough to know that "biplanes are hard." With time out in the 1960s after graduating from high school for the Navy and college and "The Sixties" I returned to the hobby in 1970 and haven't left since.

I became a screenwriter in Hollywood in the 1980s, after first getting published as an aviation author in the 1970s in Air Enthusiast Quarterly. I love the fact that William Green, who wrote the first "serious aviation book" (All The World's Aircraft 1954) that I got my father to buy for me was the first person to publish me. I've flown the back seat of an F-4E Phantom for an article on the Wild Weasels in Air Force Magazine, and had 20 minutes stick time in Jim Nissen's 1918 Curtiss JN-4D Jenny back in 1979 for an article in Plane and Pilot, and been in everything in between over the past 47 years. When I worked in politics in Sacramento during the 1970s, I was a member of a club that flew Stearman N747JR (we called ourselves in as "Boeing 747 Junior") and got around 100 hours in that fun machine.

I'm one of the original members here of iModeler, and consider it the best model club on the planet.

Author of "Fabled Fifteen: The Pacific War Odyssey of Carrier Air Group 15", "Pacific Thunder: the Pacific War from Wake island to Leyte Gulf," "Tidal Wave: From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay," "The Frozen Chosen: The First Marine Division and the Battle of Chosin Reservoir," "Holding The Line: the Naval Air Campaign in Korea," and "MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea - 1950-53" which will be released on November 26.

My most recent book, "Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Command Against the Luftwaffe 1942-45" will be published by Osprey on May 23.

My wife of 27 years finally escaped Parkinson's on February 20 and sailed west to the unknown land beyond the sunset where she once again paints seascapes with her friends, her cats.

You can order all of them here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Thomas+McKelvey+Cleaver&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

“Spam Can” in her new incarnation at Chino today

Every few years, Planes of Fame repaints "Spam Can" (the world's oldest continuously-licensed P-51D, since 1957) to represent a famous P-51. She is now in the markings of the 506th Fighter Group, one of the VLR Mustang groups [...]

Another Bosworth Beauty: 1/32 Ryan B.1 Brougham"The MGM plane"

Another one from Bill. From his e-mail: In 1927 MGM contracted with Ryan to take a B1 Brougham and to convert it to carry Leo the MGM lion on a promotional tour of the East Coast. The plane was modified with the installation of a cage [...]

Last one: Bill Bosworth's 1/32 scratchbuilt Bell YFM-1 Airacuda

"I'm not worthy!" Erik Shilling, who actually flew this contraption in 1940, told me it had to be towed to the takeoff point on the runway to avoid overheating, and because it was all-electric, if you lost the generator (as he [...]

Bill Bosworth1/32 scratchbuilt Fw-189 "Uhu"

One of those "I think I'll take up stamp collecting after seeing this" models. 1/32 scratchbuilt Fw-189 "Uhu" in winter camouflage.

More Bill BosworthRepublic Rainbow airliner

1/48 scratchbuilt Republic Rainbow. Probably one of the most beautiful multi-engine propeller airplanes ever flown. Had the Air Force picked it up, there was a plan at the end of the war for American Airlines to use it as a high-speed [...]

Bill Bosworth’s scratchbuilt Fokker T-2

Bill would kill me with his bare hands were I to actually refer to him as "the legendary Bill Bosworth," but in fact that title is true, though it should never be used since he would deny all. So just remember, you never read [...]

Tamiya 1/48 P-51Ds

Some Tamiya 1/48 P-51Ds, Glenn Eagleston's "Eagle", 353rd FS, 354th "Pioneer Mustang" FG. "Grim Reaper" - 356th FS, 354th FG (I would love to see some warbird owner do this on a flyer) Bud Anderson's "Old [...]

How big is big? the H-K B-17G in progress

So, how big is big? This is the H-K B-17G hanging in its storage area on the wall, next to a 1/48 Tamiya Lancaster. Those of you who have the 1/48 :Lanc in your collection think of it as a big model, yes? Not so much here! Ten days of [...]

iModeler Review: 1/32 Revell Messerschmitt Bf-109G-6

After finishing the last 1/32 Hasegawa Bf-109, an F-2, I told myself I was finally "109ed out," that the airplane as a model held no suprises and no further interest to me. So naturally, when the neighborhood Walter White [...]

RCAF Sabre Mk. 6 – Kinetic 1/32

The Kinetic 1/32 F-86F done as an early RCAF Sabre Mk. 6 (hard leading edge wing) with Harold Offield's cockpit set and Leading Edge decals (which include the resin "sugar scoops" that are the visual difference between a Sabre 6 [...]