Under the stress of combat he develops from a slightly hysterical youth prone to practical jokes to a calm, confident, competent leader.
While the purpose of the Biggles stories was to entertain adolescent boys, in the First World War books Johns paid attention to historical detail and helped recreate the primitive days of early air combat, in which pilots often died the first time they were in action and before devices such as oxygen supply and parachutes for those on board had become practical.
Various models on which the Biggles character might have been based have been suggested, including rugby player and WWI flying ace Cyril Lowe, fighter pilot Albert Ball, and air commodore Arthur Bigsworth.
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 and Supermarine Spitfires in the Second World War, right up to the Hawker Hunter jet fighter in the postwar adventure Biggles in the Terai.
The books were successful and were translated into Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Flemish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
The young James had little contact with European culture and commenced a lifelong affection for India, befriending the local Indian boys, exploring the countryside and learning to speak fluent Hindi.
When Biggles, now an adult, visits Dickpa, his father's brother, again, an adventure begins that takes both men to Brazil (the Cruise of the Condor).
[3] Posted to France with under 15 hours, dual and solo, he first flew in combat in September 1916 with 169 Squadron, RFC, (commanded by Major Paynter).
A study of the short stories featuring his First World War exploits, suggests that he had a 'score' of 49 aircraft, three balloons and one submarine, while himself being shot down or crash-landing eight times.
Biggles returned to service in the Second World War, initially with a Supermarine S6B type machine in the Baltic Sea and then to defy the Nazis and their allies in Norway.
[1] After the Second World War Johns reinvents Biggles' career yet again, with his former boss Air Commodore Raymond hiring him as a "flying detective" for Scotland Yard.
Biggles returns to his rooms in Mount Street, Mayfair and assumes a role as head of the new Special Air Police division with Algy, Ginger and Bertie making up the flying squad.
An eccentric former racing driver, who flies with a hunting horn and a monocle, Bertie joins Biggles in the Air Police in most of the post-war stories.
[7] Biggles' greatest opponent is the German intelligence officer Erich von Stalhein,[1] a member of an old Prussian family of soldiers.
Von Stalhein returns as an adversary in numerous other adventures: in Biggles & Co. he is the leader of a group of smugglers based in a medieval castle somewhere in Germany.
[1] First appears as a major (later colonel) in the British Intelligence service during the First World War, in which capacity he organises secret ("special") missions in which Biggles takes part.
Biggles suffers a disappointment in the First World War, when he falls in love with German spy Marie Janis in the short story "Affaire de Coeur", set in 1918.
Rather than being considered asexual or a repressed homosexual, Biggles' relationship with Janis suggests he is a romantic hero, "tragically loyal to the only woman he ever really loved".
[11][12] Johns did not write the scripts and apparently ended the contract after receiving complaints from young readers that the storyline had made Biggles "go soft" by taking up a blonde female lover.
Another female character appears in the form of Worrals (Flight Officer Joan Worralson), eponymous heroine of a related series of books featuring this resourceful and "plucky" member of the WAAF.
A further Johns creation, the commando Captain Lorrington "Gimlet" King, also features in a series of books that intersect with Biggles at times.
For instance, Biggles (with some of his First World War "chums"), who at that point should be well into their forties, are still relatively junior squadron officers flying Spitfires during the Battle of Britain.
In the stories set after the end of the Second World War, Biggles and Algy, in particular, are, by the rules of arithmetic, passing into their fifties and early sixties, while retaining levels of activity and lifestyle more typical of people at least thirty years younger.
Nonetheless, the social context of the books, viewed in chronological order, does become increasingly old-fashioned, even anachronistic, especially in those works set after the Second World War.
[13] Historian Marika Sherwood objected to Johns' use of "chinks" and "coolies" to describe people of Chinese origin in Biggles Hits the Trail (1935).
Milner observed that the positive characteristics of these characters include relatively light complexions, Western education and general usefulness to the white hero and his friends and allies.
The emotional strain of combat is also realistically described, as Biggles becomes a "highly-strung" fidgeting pale youth, lacking his usual sense of humour.
Helping him were Ginger (John Leyton) and Bertie (David Drummond) and they fought against villains like von Stalhein (Carl Duering).
In 1986, a video game was released as a tie-in to the Biggles film by Mirrorsoft for the platforms Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.
[28] In the sketch, Biggles (Graham Chapman) behaves in a naive and overreactive manner about the sexual orientation of his comrades, shooting Algy in the process.