Eagle Comics #2

Frances Craig thought her routine transport mission for the Civilian Air Patrol was straightforward—fly Colonel Preston from the East Coast base to North Medford—until her passenger vanished mid-flight, revealing himself as the leader of a criminal gang who commandeers her plane for a getaway. When Don Winston, captain of an interceptor squadron, discovers Frances in danger and steps in to help, the two pilots find themselves in a desperate fight against a desperate enemy.

During World War II, the Army Air Forces trained a specialized corps of photographer-soldiers at Lowry Field in Denver and Culver City, teaching candidates to master still and motion picture photography for military reconnaissance and combat documentation. From basic instruction through advanced aerial work with graphic speed cameras and electrical flight systems, these embryonic lensmen learned to capture terrain, interpret stereoscopic images, and assemble tactical mosaics—while motion picture operators underwent rigorous physical and weapons training to film combat operations in the field. It's a behind-the-lines look at how camera-wielding soldiers became essential to the American war effort.

When grasshoppers and Mormon crickets threaten to devastate crops across the American West, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Entomology develops an ingenious aerial solution: specially equipped autogiros that can spread poisoned bait over infested farmland at an impressive rate. This true-to-life account showcases how pilots and scientists worked together on the home front to wage an aerial campaign against hungry swarms and save vital wartime food supplies.

Exiled fighter pilots from eight Nazi-occupied nations—Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, and Yugoslavia—have regrouped in England and beyond to form the Squadrons of Freedom, determined to strike back against the Axis powers. From the Polish Air Force's harrowing escape across Europe to the Greek Hurricane squadrons protecting Mediterranean shipping, each nation's airmen bring their own hunger for liberation to the Allied cause. Now, trained and battle-hardened, these squadrons of freedom are blazing a path toward reclaiming their homelands, one bombing run and dogfight at a time.

A crew chief on the flight ramp uses hand signals—an ingenious system of gestures that would look like gibberish to the untrained eye—to communicate crucial pre-flight instructions to pilots whose engines are too loud to hear shouted commands. From mixture adjustments to bomb bay doors and de-icing sequences, each specific hand position relays vital information that keeps aircraft ready for takeoff. This 1945 educational feature reveals the practical sign language that keeps wartime aviation operations running smoothly.

Pilots are calling the Bell P-59A Airacomet "five tons of lightning"—a revolutionary twin-engine jet fighter that outpaces anything currently in the air, proven through secret trials in the California desert and already deployed against Nazi targets over England. This non-fiction feature reveals the groundbreaking design and capabilities that experts believe will secure American air superiority in the postwar era.

Billy, Ernie, and Pee-Wee take their homemade plane to Farmdale for a quick hundred dollars—but when they open the payment envelope mid-flight, they discover it's Confederate money from the Civil War. Doubling back to investigate, the Eagle Scouts stumble upon something far stranger: a house full of historical figures (Buffalo Bill, Napoleon, General Grant, and others) who've somehow come to life, all gathered around an eccentric inventor named William Cody and his world-changing creation. It's a wild ride that blends mystery, comedy, and the kind of over-the-top adventure that only the Golden Age could deliver.