Two icons have passed away

The Aviation hobby society has recently lost two of its icons. On 12 November 2023 Joe Baugher passed away, 82 years old. He died from the cancer for which he had, in vain, been treated before.

He described himself as being an aircraft serial number freak, and that is what he was. In all the years that he was active in the hobby he compiled a bunch of tables of US military aircraft. On his very straight forward website, a vast amount of serial data of US Air Force, US Navy, and US Coast Guard since the early days could be found. No photos or illustrations, just aircraft serial numbers!

Joe Baugher's website has been an invaluable source of information for countless numbers of enthusiasts and researchers. Fortunately many people have recognized the value of Joe’s work, and one of them, Marco Dirkx has taken steps to secure the future of it. Thanks to Marco, the content of Joe Baugher’s website can be found here: https://www.crouze.com/baugher

On 4 January 2024, Australian enthousiast Geoff Goodall passed away. For many decades Geoff has been active in the field of (mainly) historic aviation. He published many articles in international aviation magazines and several books. He retired in 2013 after a 45 year Air Traffic Control career which gave him even more time to complete various aviation history projects, using a lifetime’s collection of information, photographs and books.

Geoff will surely be remembered by the warbird community. He initially published his data in the well-known books ‘Warbird Worldwide Directory’ that he compiled together with John Chapman. In recent years these data would only be accessible on his website: https://www.goodall.com.au/warbirds.htm

One can only hope that someone will continue Geoff’s life’s work.

Scramble and its editors would like to convey our sincerest condolences to mrs. Judith Baugher and the relatives of Geoff Goodall. They will not be forgotten. R.I.P.

Photo of USAF heritage flight during Air Venture 2022: Gert Jan Mentink