Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War
Harborough Publishing Company, Ltd
1946 first edition. price 31/6
Co-authors Owen. G. Thetford and E.J.Riding
The layout is very much like that used in A.F.P
Pages 126
Appendix
"A" Experimental and Prototype Aircraft 1914-18.
Appendix "B" Lesser-Known operational types, variants and
experimentals.
Appendix "C" Illustrations of rare types of British, French, German
and Italian Aircraft 1914-18.
Appendix "D" Squadron Line-ups, showing Aircraft in service.
Anyone with a taste for Mass-Observation will discover, we imagine, on analyzing the correspondence columns of the various aviation journals in recent years the surprisingly larget-weight proportion of enquiries relating not to aircraft of the recent war but to those employed in that of 1914. It is evident that there is a greatly renewed interest nowadays in the aeroplanes of normal" the Great War Period. to compare the veterans of over a quarter of a century ago with their modern descendants is understandable and, indeed, to be encouraged. Until the publication of the present work, however, such information has been singularly difficult to find, short of searching through an entire reference library, dipping into many books, and even then not always with success. Aviation literature published during the Great War is beyond the reach of the majority, especially the younger generation, and few books produced between 1920 and 1939 dealt at all exhaustively with the exhaustively with the "Quirks," "Rumperts," "Biffs" and "Tripehounds" in which interest is now so widespread.
The authors of this book have sought to remedy this situation, and in doing so have cast their net far and wide in an attempt to gather information on some of those aeroplanes which have had rather less than their due share of attention but which were nevertheless used in large numbers and did some splendid work. Practically every type of machine actually used in squadron service by the British, French and German flying services in the 1914-18 period has been included, and there are also four examples of Italian designs. The complete absence of any Russian aeroplanes is due to the fact that in the main French designs were employed for routine work on the Eastern Front.
The
1/72 scale drawings
in Aircraft of the Fighting Powers have
been retained so that direct comparisons can be made between the old and the
new. Although drawings of one kind or another have been available previously,
though not between the covers of any single volume, the majority of those in
this book appear for the first time in the convenient 1/72 scale.
As in the recent war, the system of sub-contracting was widely used in the Great War by the British aircraft industry, and for this reason
mention has been made in the specifications of the factories building each type
under licence from the parent firm. Information
has also been included wherever possible on the squadrons which were equipped
with each type, and the number of each type in service. Information on the markings and camouflage of
1914-18 aircraft will be found in the companion work, Camouflage
1914-18 Aircraft by
0. G. Thetford.
In the appendices to the book will be found a table supplying some leading particulars
of various experimental aircraft of the Great War which did not see actual
squadron service. Photographs are also included of over a hundred rare types and
derivations of standard types, forming a supplement to the main work.
It is thought advisable to insert a few words of warning at this point. It will be understood that modifications to standard designs were common in the Great War just as they are to-day, and such items as skids, fins, exhaust pipes and ailerons were seen in several variations on the same type. The radiators and exhausts of the S.E.the ailerons of the Snipe and the fin of the R.E.8 (one version having a rounded fin as on the B.E.2E) spring readily to mind in illustration. Further, it is perhaps wise to point out that several sets of performance figures are to be found for many types of Great War aeroplanes, and it follows that there has been great controversy in the past, and will be in the future, about the respective merits of different machines. Consequently, care has been taken to quote figures appearing in official documents of the period, regardless of whether they agree with other, probably more optimistic, sources.
In
conclusion, the authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the
O.G.Thetford and E.J.Riding
Taken form Preface.
Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War
Harleyford Publications.
1954 2nd Edition.
Dust cover the same as boards.
126 pages
Sold not so long ago on E-BAY, what looks like very nice condition.