Biggles [SEP] conflict
based have been suggested, including rugby player and WWI flying ace Cyril Lowe, fighter pilot Albert Ball and air commodore Arthur Bigsworth. Johns stated that the character was a composite of many individuals in the RFC (including himself).
The bulk of the Biggles books are set after the First World War, and after Johns' flying career was over. Biggles has an unusually lengthy career, flying a number of aircraft representative of the history of British military aviation, from Sopwith Camels during the First World War, Hawker Hurricanes
"Biggles Foreign Legionnaire" (1954) in W. E. John's Biggles series set in the '50s, the eponymous hero and his protégé Ginger join the Legion as part of an undercover operation trying to unmask a gang of multi-national arms dealers who are instigating war in global conflict zones.
- The chronicle of Richard Halliburton's African flying adventure, "The Flying Carpet", includes a description of the members of the Foreign Legion he befriends, plus several riveting anecdotes he hears from some of the older members