KNIGHT, CLAYTON Papers. 1939-1980

3 reels negative microfilm

Call No. 168.7142, 35106-35108

IRIS Nos. 1037005A-1037006, 1039283A-1039284

Writer and Illustrator. Born in Rochester, NY. Chicago Institute of Art. Served in Aviation Section, Signal Corps, 1917-1918; served in Royal Air Force, 1918-1919. Career assignments include: Founder, Clayton Knight Committee (renamed Canadian Aviation Bureau, 1941), 1939-1942; Special Correspondent, Associated Press, 1942; Combat Historian, US Air Forces in Alaska, Aleutians and Central Pacific, 1943-1945; Writer and Illustrator, 1946-1969. Died in Danbury, CT. Officer, Order of the British Empire, 1946. Author, Co-author and/or Illustrator of Pilot's Luck (1929), Quest of the Golden Condor (1945), Secret of the Buried Tomb (1948), Skyroad to Mystery (1949), Hitch Your Wagon-Bernt Balchen (1950), The Story of Flight (1954), Normandy Invasion (1956), Lifeline in the Sky - MATS (1957), Plane Crash (1958), Battle of Britain (1959), About Our Armed Forces (1959), The How and Why Book of Rockets and Missiles (1960), Lafayette Escadrille (1961), and Rockets, Missiles and Satellites (1962).

Personal and official papers relating to Knight's role in the founding the Clayton Knight Committee, later renamed the Canadian Aviation Bureau, a system designed to recruit American aviators into the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan between 1939 and 1942. Includes personal diaries, miscellaneous correspondence, memoranda and reports relating to the working of the Knight Committee (1939-1967). Contains Weekly Reports (1941), financial and statistical statements (1940-1941), directives such as the Committee's General Regulations (1941) and the Elementary Drill Manual (1940), roster of candidates and reports of security investigations (1940). Includes papers authored by Knight and a transcript of an interview with Knight by Major Hays of the Air Force Academy (1965). Also includes The Canadian Military Experience 1867-1967, A Bibliography. Contains news clippings, photographs, and other articles of the Committee members and the recruited Americans in both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force (1939-1945). Also contains letters of appreciation (1942-1945) and a partial Roll of Honor.

Access to some materials restricted by USAF administrative markings.

Related materials located in the Air University Library include periodical articles by and about Knight and copies of Hitch Your Wagon-Bernt Balchen and Lifeline in the Sky - MATS.