I am so sad Ben's voice has fallen silent. In the course of some exchanges with him I learnt we were both "soixante-huitards" -- '68ers', those (at the time) relatively young people who had been in Paris during the "events of May" (the student demonstrations), he as a journalist. Though very sick, he in recent weeks gave me some invaluable help with info for the second edition of my book.  I intended to send him copies to give to friends visiting him.  If his daughters would like to contact me at [email protected] , I would be glad to send them to them instead. Not only did he cover aviation but also many other topics such as astronomy.  An inspiration, though you had to be careful not to be too carried away on some hobby-horses if yours were similar.