The Pilot

The Pilot was first published by the Amalgamated Press on the 5th October 1935. It ran for 131 issues before being amalgamated with the Wild West Weekly. Make sure you have a look at some of the front covers, they are brilliant! You can see the front pages from the first 14 issues here.

The Three Cowboys story in the Pilot

The Three Cowboys story story appeared in issues 1-14 of the Pilot, you can download it by clicking here.

This story was reprinted in the Boys Friend Library issue 557 (second Series)

This story shares some locations with the Rio Kid.

Will Hay in the Pilot.

In his autobiography Frank Richards recalled the Will Hay stories with pleasure. In the late 30's Will Hay was at the peak of his fame so what better new feature could there be than a series of school stories of him at Bendover School? Will Hay arrived at Bendover in Pilot No 72 on February 13th 1937 and stayed until issue 102. You can read an article by WOG Lofts from Collectors' Digest issue 237 here.

There are no online stories available yet but I hope to have a few soon.

The stories were reprinted in the 1938 Boys Friend Library issues 647 and 649. Howard Baker later reprinted the two Boys Friend stories in a single volume.