Looking for reference books

hurricane3

hurricane3

SOH-CM-2025
Does anyone know of any reference books on aircraft of the 1920's and 30's, both civil and military. There used to be a series of books on this subject I saw in the old avation magazines ,don't remember by who ,but as far as I know their out of print.
 
Britsim has large collection, but recently it become very, veeeeeery slow and often unreachable. I lost my HD where FS was installed recently and in few days managed to redownload most of Austers and other goodies from there, but it takes multiple attempts and patience
 
I have tried to get on Brit Sim for weeks with out luck. I have most all Brit Sim's planes too but what I'm looking for isn't flight sim related . I'm trying to find reference books that I can hold in my grubby little hands on planes of the twenties and thirty's. I'm thinking of something like those books that were advertised in magazines like Air Progress and Air Power from the 60's and early 70's.(Ya I'am that old).I can rummage around in my collection of aviation magazines and see if I can find the old advertisements.
I'm thinking the books might have been reprints of books published by the CAB (civil aeronautics board,now the NTSB)
 
look for "Jane's All the Worlds Aircraft" books (they were done yearly pretty much) not easy to find but they are "the" pure reference book for aircraft in my opion, the best thing is they included all the planes they knew about at the time, not just the well known ones, so you see planes you never knew existed. A couple of the years have also been reprinted, which was nice.
 
Look for the PUTNAM series, IIRC the original publishers went under some 15+ years ago but I'd be surprised if another hasn't picked them up.
I had the lot way back when, and they were expensive TBH, but really worth the money in the long run.
When PUTNAM collapsed the receivers (I assume) put all the titles out at A$15.00 each, which teed me right off, as the average price from my regular purveyor of aviation publications had been A$125.00-A$150.00!!!

E bay has many pre-loved titles listed but the usual 'collector' prices are a bit stiff, these are listed at UKP40.00 plus shipping.
And one other source of great titles was the original 'Air Britain' group, single volumes covering every DC3/DC4/DC6/DC7/Connie etc etc.

:banghead:

acivilair1_zpse80143af.jpg
:santahat:
 
The Command of the Air

A very interesting book is "the Command of the Air" of General Giulio Douhet. The aerial doctrine that Douhet developed in his book had a strong influency in the aerial strategy in the second World War and afterwards.

Courtesy of Air Force History and museums program, here (pdf).
 
I am familiar with both Putnam and Janes but they are very expensive for the years I wanted. That being said it looks like I'm going to have to look for the older books as there doesn't seem to be any new books on the subject unless I would go with books on each aircraft company.I have seen books on Stinson, Piper etc. but nothing on all the planes for both decades.
 
A couple sites that have some good historical & tec info:

1. avia-it.com: Lots of docs and manuals.

2. Hip Pocket Aeronautics: Great model plans but also lots of books and Profile pubs. NACA reports too.


Norm
 
Thanks guys , I put these sites in my favorites. I don't think there is one book that will cover everything, so I'm going to have to start another library, (my wife will be so happy).
 
Wow thanks guys for the response.I've been a member of SOH since 2005 and have never visited the other great forums like the Historical Wings Society. Looks like I'm missing out on a wealth of information.
 
I found the books that I remembered from my old aviation magazines ,don't know why I thought they were published by the CAB. I'm not sure how many volumes there were but nine are currently avalible ,they are the U.S Civil Aircraft Series by Joseph Juptner. To get all nine volumes would be quite exspensive depending on the shape a person is willing to settle with.
Their on Amazon.
 
I have quite a few duplicate Putnams and, to be honest, they are not selling well on the Bay, so prices would be very reasonable....the big problem is shipping costs to the US - if anyone knows of an answer to this one, then maybe we can do a deal !
 
Putnams

Hi Lefty,
Give us an idea of what you've got and we'll go from there .

Regards
1150:dizzy:
 
I have two book that contain 1920-1930s aircraft. One is all military and the other is both. They cover other eras as well.

The first is:

The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft; Barnes and Noble books; ISBN: 0 7607 0592 5

The second is:

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft; Chartwell Books, INC; ISBN 0-7858-1359-4

The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft is a better quick reference for looking up manufacturers Aircraft. So you kinda have to know what your looking for. Gives all the models for each type and list some experimental aircraft. Both civil and military.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft has as stated, illustrations of military aircraft. There are some errors in data but every illustration has a three view drawing to go with it. plus there are many other little things that make it worth having on the shelf.

I've used both heavily over the years. Once in a while I find conflicting data which I then have to search for in other books or online.

Thats all I have that covers those years. Good luck in your search.

Till Later,
John
 
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