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From: kallis@pen.DEC
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: Aviation trivia Answers
Message-ID: <3106@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 09:26:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.3106
Posted: Mon Jul 15 09:26:35 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 06:22:45 EDT
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<	> f. - Whose emblem?
>	Heh, heh, heh.  "Captain Midnight," a comic book character from the
>	'30s and '40s ...

As probably the last active member of Captain Midnight's Secret Squadron ( :-))
and a self-admitted expert on Vaptain Midnight, most aviators too young to
know of him --
	a)  The emblem was a *winged* clock.  The Secret Squadron (his organiza-
tion used it as a flight-wings insigne.  It was also used on the some of the
cipher disks ("Code-O-Graphs") used to send secret messages (see my article
on this in _Cryptologia_, and _Datamation_ ... forget the dates); stecfically
the 1947, 1948, and 1949 models.  

	     b)  The exploits of CM were first introduced on the radio.  In the
1939 season, they were sponsored regionally by Skelly Oil; from 1940 through
1950, they were sponsored nationally by Ovaltine.  The show was _highly_
aviation oriented, and it taught such things as how to do a loop, how to
do a soft-field takeoff, etc.  The scripters of the series were both pilots,
and I can't remember an episode that took severe liberties with matters
that were aviation related. [I have ben working on a "biographical" manu-
script of the character, based on a memory and a perusal of the radio scripts,
courtesy of Ovaltine, so I am not relying on 40-year-old recollections alone.]

	The comic-book CM (a pale imitation of the real one) was a fantasy char-
acter, complete with skin-tight costume, "gliderchute" flying-squirrel mem-
branes to substitute for a parachute, and a "doom beam," which was a sort
of heat ray not unlike something Spider-Man is reported to use today.

	Also, a separate and distinct newspaper comic strip appeared, syndi-
cated by the Chicago News syndicate, that was closer to the radio show.
	Finally, there was a terrible television spinoff.  When rereleased,
the name "Captain Midnight" was replaced with "Jet Jackson" throughout
the sound track and in the title.

Steve Kallis, Jr.