A website dedicated to cult heroes James Bigglesworth and Wedge Antilles

WHO ARE THEY? A look at Biggles and Wedge and the link between these two aviators

THE MAGNIFICENT MEN More about the two leaders - and their equally brilliant and charming colleagues

THE FLYING MACHINES Where would we be without them?

THE PILOTS IN POP CULTURE How the world sees these legends and has made use of them

MEDIA Information, reviews on the media they have appeared in - books, comics and movies

WHIMSY All manner of things - as my insanity has led me. Humour, artwork, quizzes, etc. Always growing.

LINKS To related sites on the Net

ABOUT ME And some of my other interests

NEWS AND UPDATES Back to the "home" page

Biggles by Ron Embleton, Algy by Stead, Ginger by ?, Bertie by Frank Leclerq Wedge by Chris Chuckry and Doug Wheatley, Tycho by Edvin Biukovic, Wes by John Nadeau and Jordi Ensign, Hobbie by Biukovic Thanks to M. Alain Rouquette for the Biggles and Bertie pictures and to HRH for the Ginger picture

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit site for entertainment purposes only. All rights to the characters of Biggles and his friends belong to W.E. Johns. Wedge and the rest of the Fab Four belong to George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd. No disrespect or copyright infringement was ever intended. The aim of this site is to promote awareness of Biggles and Rogue Squadron and the webmistress cannot encourage people enough to buy the movies/books/comics involved for themselves, whenever possible. NOTE: To illustrate this site, I have used pictures from movies, books and comics, besides my own art. The X-Wing: Rogue Squadron and other Star Wars comics are published by Dark Horse Comics and where I have used them on this site I have given the name of the comic and the penciler and/or inker. Most of the pictures from comics were scanned in by myself but in some cases, especially in my 'casting' sections, I got the pictures off the Net and couldn't remember where I got them from, though whenever possible I have written to the owner of the website to ask permission. If you see anything on this site which you think is yours and would like me to remove it or credit you for it, please email me and I will do it gladly. Please inform me of any broken links, mistakes, etc. In addition, I am always happy to hear your questions or comments :) Site content ©2004-05 Joanna Chan Email: jainafel @ hotmail.com

Welcome to the only site on the Net for both Biggles and Wedge!


Online since: 30 May 2005

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What's New?
17th July 2005: Have added an appeal for everyone who loves Wedge, regarding the way characters are treated in fan-fiction.

8th July 2005:I've replaced the fiddly inline frame, which I never liked, with a website structured on div elements instead!! I had to teach myself elementary css in one day (and I doubt I could ever have figured it out without divine revelation!!), but at least now the site is much more accessible. I've removed the picture from "The Survivor" and added two scans to "Lament for Alderaan". I've also made a minor change to Tycho's casting section to add a comment about Jamie Bamber's role in Battlestar Galactica. This hardly does justice to the ASTOUNDING similarities between the BSG remake and X-Wing, which deserve to be studied at greater length some day :)

4 Jun 2005: I realised I'd accidentally uploaded, wrongly, a very early (and bad) version of my poem "The Survivor". It has been replaced with the final version.

30 May 2005:This site has finally been redesigned to my liking and I hereby declare it officially open! :D Hopefully will have a chance to complete Wedge and Biggles character pages sometime...

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Those magnificent men in their flying machines
They go up-diddly-up-dup,
They go down-diddly-own-down!
They enchant all the ladies, and steal all the scenes,
Those magnificent men in their flying machines!
...
They can fly upside-down with their feet in the air,
They don't heed the danger, they really don't care
Newton would think he had made a mistake,
To see those young men and the chances they take!

- Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
music composed by Ken Goodwin
lyrics by Mrs Elmo Williams

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"After all, Wedge IS Biggles!" one Star Wars fan has declared. Another has compared Stackpole's book Rogue Squadron to "Biggles in space". "No, Wedge is definitely better than Biggles!" crow some Star Wars fans. Others say they love the X-Wing books because they remind them of Biggles.

Most fans, however, will probably miss the allusions, as most Wedge fans cannot remember Biggles, and many Biggles devotees have probably never heard of Wedge. But this is a pity, because Biggles and Wedge are without doubt the greatest and most enduring heroes of the aviation-adventure genre, of the same equal stature in the air as, say, Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin are on the sea. For decades they have commanded a fierce loyalty from their readers, who are just as likely to be children as to be grown-ups, who reside anywhere from South Africa to Malaysia.

Why is their appeal so strong and long-lasting? How did they cut across cultures to win the hearts of millions? Why are the books so powerful? And why should you be picking them up to read immediately if you've never heard of them before?

This site attempts to examine some of these questions - but is, more importantly, designed to tickle, amuse, engage and consume the precious time of fans of these two pilots. Happy exploring!

The title of this website derives from the famous and rather funny 1965 comedy movie about daredevil aviation pioneers and national stereotypes. I thought it was an able summary of everything I wanted to write about on this site. Besides, the Star Wars connection is strong in this one - the director being Ken Annakin, after all :)

Amazingly, there does exist a Star Wars parody of the famous theme song, Those Magnificent Twin Ion Engine Machines, by Steven Cavenagh at TheForce.Net. It could almost be the theme song of Rogue Squadron :)