Christmas Books

[Hurricane]

Now everyone's had a good chance to get reading them, lets put up a few reviews! (other aviation presents welcome as well)


I'll start the ball rolling.

I got the Spitfire Haynes Manual, which is pretty good for what it is, lots of shots of spits under restoration and some interesting bits about operating and flying preserved spits.

Also got The Avro Vulcan by Tim McClelland which is excellent, I have the next book which is about the Hunter pre-ordered. Not much more to say other than if I ever get another Vulcan book its gonna have to be a bloody good one! :costumes:

[Ralf Roggeveen]

I'd be interested to know more of your opinion of the Haynes' Spitfire book, James. Wonder if'n they'll do that for any other aircraft?

I didn't get any aviation books for Christmas this year; main present was a biography of 1950s racing driver the Marquis of Portago: http://www.amazon.com/Marquis-Portago-Legend-Ed-McDonough/dp/B000KI15FG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199687107&sr=1-3

He was a pretty good racer, horseman (rode in the Grand National) & bobsleigherer (! Led the 1956 Spanish Winter Olympics team which came 4th overall). Tragically killed in the '57 Mille Miglia. The book contains a vague idea that he might have also been a pilot, but no firm evidence. Very good if you're interested in 1950s motorsport. An expensive book, but it'll only have a limited run & retain its value.

In aviation I'm thinking of getting: http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Russian-Air-Service-Aircraft/dp/1891268074/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199687510&sr=1-1

The be-all-and-end-all of Russian WW1 pilots & aircraft. It looks very, very good. They do a French equivalent - even more costly! Anybody got either? lefty?

Have been spending some spare time over the holidays/at weekends making relevant kits which will be posted in due course (when finished!)...

[lefty]

Don't know the book, Ralf - WWI not really my 'thing' (Happy New Year, by the way )

I see on the US site it is 'currently out of stock'. With Amazon that means they mail you nine months later to tell you they have one at $300 !

As for my Santa haul, one of my dear friends, knowing of my other interests, gave me this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Birds-America-John-James-Audubon/dp/1558591281/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199692194&sr=1-8

Absolutely wonderful book, all 19lbs of it! Apart from that a reprint of some Biggles tales!

[Hurricane]

I think they are planning to do the lancaster, and presumably the Hurricane :mixedsmi: eventually since its done in assosciation with the RAF and BBMF.

Its a good little book. It covers a bit of history but theres a lot of bits by warbird pilots talking about flying spits, and restorers talking about restoring them. The photos are very good for modellers too.

All depends what you want really:
If you want the definitive history theres better books.
And if you want a proper 'workshop manual' (as it says on the cover) then the reprint of the Spitfire MkV Manual is what you want.

This one's an interesting read, and a reasonable all-rounder.

[Moses03]

My only Christmas reading was the DC-6/DC-7 tech book. I already have the Connie & Convair Twins in this series. Good stuff.


http://www.motorbooks.com/Store/UserDirs/motorbooks.com/coverimages/129617.jpg (http://www.motorbooks.com/Store/UserDirs/motorbooks.com/coverimages/129617.jpg) Douglas DC-6 and DC-7 Author: HARRY GANN An enthusiast-level technical look at the design, evolution, and growth of the famous DC-6 and DC-7 series of aircraft. Filled cover-to-cover with engineering drawings, production line photos, performance figures, powerplant details, and close-ups of aircraft structures. AirlinerTech 4. Sftbd., 8 1/2"x 11", 100 pgs., 145 bandw ill., 10 color.
Pages: 100

[Ferry_vO]

No books this year, even though I had one on the list, so I ordered it myself. :)

There's a series of pocket books available that review the year; you can get those for cars, bikes, ships and of course airplanes!
I used to rent these at the library when I was a kid, and a few years ago I started to collect them.

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Don't know the book, Ralf - WWI not really my 'thing' (Happy New Year, by the way )

I see on the US site it is 'currently out of stock'. With Amazon that means they mail you nine months later to tell you they have one at $300 !

As for my Santa haul, one of my dear friends, knowing of my other interests, gave me this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Birds-America-John-James-Audubon/dp/1558591281/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199692194&sr=1-8

Absolutely wonderful book, all 19lbs of it! Apart from that a reprint of some Biggles tales!

Nice bird book...VERY NICE bird book! Audubon was quite a character. In my first job I worked in a bookshop where we had a 'small' volume of repros of his prints which was half the size of the door; when it was sold they had to back a truck up to the entrance so that we could load it & they could drive off with it (and that was just a few plates from Birds of America).

Maybe I should have gone for the Russian Imperial Air Service while it was in stock a few days ago (though wallet says 'no'). That was originally published in '95, so getting rare. With the current state of the $ & £ it's now usually cheaper to buy books from US amazon. Something that costs £79.99 in UK amazon is only $149 in America and international postage isn't much for printed matter.

My main interest in the Russkies is actually what happened when they had their Revolution & the Imperial Airforce turned Soviet. You can now get a lot of Eastern European/ex-Soviet kits of very early Red AF aircraft (mostly things like Spads & Nieuports), but little seems to have been published in English about this time & subsequent civil war & fighting Allied invaders, Poles, etc. in the 1920s. British air imput was quite substantial too.

not really your thing aviation-wise... :d]

[lefty]

Well aviation is such a vast subject, that you gravitate to certain eras, in my case WWII. I could fill several bookcases with that alone, but don't have the cash or the space!

My interest has admittedly drifted back through the inter-war years (difficult to get good information here) and WWI although my literature of that conflict is sparse.

As for early (pre-1914) fliers, I am simply not that interested - they had their place, of course, in aviation history but tend to leave me a bit cold, as does most of the stuff after about 1975 ! Which is, of course, the year that popular music ceased to be, but that's another story.......................

PS note I haven't mentioned gasbags at all.

[Hurricane]

Funnily enough, I've found my interests widening!

I started off with just being into WW2 and since then have spread either side of it quite along way!
I've also found myself more interested in the lighter stuff (maybe a certain Cessna is to blame for that:costumes:)* and I'm even getting into a few older tube types.

I still have a few specific interests within that but they are different types and manufacturers rather than particular eras, the more I read into the history the more the eras all seem to become linked into each other anyway!

*Not THAT light Ralf!