Nick Royce is “Half-Way to Heaven” by Frederick C. Davis
THIS week we have 
a short story by renowned pulp author Frederick C. Davis. Davis is probably best remembered for his work on Operator 5 where he penned the first 20 stories, as well as the Moon Man series for Ten Detective Aces and several other continuing series for various Popular Publications. He also wrote a number of aviation stories that appeared in Aces, Wings and Air Stories.
This week’s story features that crack pilot for World News Reel, the greatest gelatine newspaper that ever flashed on a silver screen—Nick Royce! Davis wrote twenty stories with Nick for Wings magazine from 1928-1931.
World News Reels and Compass are once again racing against time and each other to get footage of a dam bursting. World News Reels’ Nick Royce has a fire under him—if they get the pictures back first, there’s a raise in it for everyone—one that would allow Nick to marry his sweetheart, but Compass is up to their usual underhanded tricks! From the May 1928 Wings, it’s Frederick C. Davis’ “Half-Way to Heaven!”
“The shots are there. Get ‘em!”—That was all he said—but it sent Nick Royce, kid flyer of the news-reel, lumbering into the mile-high clouds to face the rage of the elements and the treachery of a rival.
“The Invisible Ace” by Ralph Oppenheim
“LET’S GO!” Once more, The Three Mosquitoes familiar battle cry rings out over the western front and the three khaki Spads take to the air, each sporting the famous Mosquito insignia. In the cockpits sat three warriors who were known wherever men flew as the greatest and most hell raising trio of aces ever to blaze their way through overwhelming odds—always in front was Kirby, their impetuous young leader. Flanking him on either side were the mild-eyed and corpulent Shorty Carn, and lanky Travis, the eldest and wisest Mosquito.
We’re back with 
the second of three tales of Ralph Oppenheim’s Three Mosquitoes we’re featuring this March for Mosquito Month! This week, our intrepid trio hunt for the Invisible Ace!
Seven Spads had fallen beneath the twin Spandau guns of the Invisible Ace— so called because no one had really seen this German flyer. Only a flash of wings in the sunlight, a black-cross insignia, a streaking gray shape—that was all they had seen of him. So swift would be the execution—like the trick of a master magician where the “hand is quicker than the eye”—that the other pilots of the flight could never spring into action until it was too late. They would hear the burst of machine-gun fire, and when they turned they would see the victim hurtling below them. But the Invisible Ace would already be up in the sun again, safe from prying eyes. So the Three Mosquitoes are tasked with bringing “The Invisible Ace” to light and ending his reign of terror! From the May 10th, 1928 issue of War Stories, it’s Ralph Oppenheim’s “The Invisible Ace!”
The Invisible Ace was raising hell with the squadron, and—But it’s another great flying yarn about the famous “Three Mosquitoes,” so why spill any more words about it?
And check back next Friday when the inseparable trio will be back with another exciting adventure!
“Deuces Wild” by Alexis Rossoff
THIS week we have a fun 
tale of the Hell-Cat Squadron from the prolific pen of Alexis Rossoff. The adventures of the Hell-Cat Brood ran in War Birds, War Stories and Flying Aces. The Seventy-Seventh Squadron had a reputation of being short on technique and long on defying every regulation in the book. The squadron was the cause of many gray hairs on the pates of the star-spangled ones back in G.H.Q. They flew their merry way like nobody’s business, and played hell with any Jerry who tried to dispute their intention of going places. This bunch of cloud-hopping war birds were known from one end of the Western front to the other as the “Hell-cats”—and sometimes the “Unholy Dozen!”
A pair of the Hell-cats are inmates in a prisoner of war camp deep within Germany. Although one is very sick, they try a daring escape to get back to the Seventy-Seventh and their brood. It’s “Deuces Wild” by Alexis Rossoff from the pages of the May 1928 War Birds!
They belonged to the Hell-cat brood, this pair—but they had been brought down by overwhelming odds, and we find them in a German prison camp, far behind the lines. Caged birds—watching, waiting—to escape—to get back somehow to the brood—and ride the clouds—with avenging guns spitting!
“Roaring Motors” by Ralph Oppenheim
Here is another early adventure of The Three Mosquitoes by Ralph Oppenheim. This one tells the story of the Mosquitoes daring raid deep behind the lines to rescue an Allied spy.
