My library just grew again 2019

[Gondor]

From todays Glasgow show two Valiant Wings books

Airframe Album 13 The Heinkel He 162
Airframe & Miniature No.11 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 Late Series (F to K includeing the Z Series)

Gondor

[Weaver]

Haynes Apollo 11 Owner's Workshop Manual
Discounted to £7 in The Works at the moment

Ditto the Saturn V book: full of close detail and procedures.
If you want to use it to change the oil on the Apollo 11 LEM, then I'm not going to stop you, but I'm not volunteering to get you there either...

Then, two new bookazines from WH Smiths:

Luftwaffe Secret Projects of the Third Reich by Dan Sharp

Ah, Luft '46: the gift that keep giving...

In all fairness, this, like other bookazines in the series, is an attempt to cut through decades of interpretation and hype and go straight to original documentation for answers. There are familiar designs here, but also some unfamiliar ones and some new information on the former. The analysis is also rather less 'star struck' than some other work.


Buccaneer - Combat Machines No.05 by Tony Buttler

Oh, what a coincidence...

...or not. It does state explicitly in the intro that this has been produced to accompany the release of the new Airfix kit. It's very good: lots of pics I havn't seen before and colour plates (side views only though). Some good stories too, Like the time one Tom Eeles landed on Victorious, only to have a Bullpup missile fall off it's pylon, bounce off the deck and sail over both deck crew and parked aircraft before going on erhe side without harm to anyone or anything!

It doesn't cross over too much in tone or content with the Haynes Buccaneer book I bought a few weeks ago, and in fact they do go together very nicely. I have noticed at least one contradiction though. The Haynes book (and every other one I've seen) states that the SAAF RATO rocket motor installation was in the rear fuselage with retractable nozzles, but the Combat Machines book states that that was just a trials fit, and the operational motors were attached in farings below the jetpipes, and even reproduces a drawing from BAE Brough to back this up.

[rickshaw]

Seems to show that it was in the rear fuselage...

[Weaver]

I agree. I can't find a single pic or source for the rockets being underneath the jetpipes in service. I think Combat Machines screwed up.

This is the pic and caption from Combat Machines (re-arranged slightly to save space):




This pic of a mockup installation is from the Ian Allen Combat Aircraft 7 book on the Bucc by Maurice Allward. I've also included the take-off pic and caption because it confirms that Rickshaw's pic is an in-service SAAF Bucc, not a test aircraft (again, slightly re-arranged):

[rickshaw]

I wasn't intending to upset you, mate.  I just found it curious that the only online picture I could find showed the rocket motors in the rear fuselage.   

[Weaver]

Eh? Who's upset? I AGREE with you: I think the Combat Machines book is WRONG.

As I've said over on the Buccaneer thread, I think the existence of the drawing and the mockup have suckered the author into thinking that they represent the production fit.

[Gondor]

Picked up an eBay purchase on my way home

Fleet Air Arm Fixed-Wing Aircraft since 1946, Ray Sturtivant with Mick Burrow & Lee Howard, published by Air-Britain

An inch and a half thick book of information and history of every fixed wing aircraft, ideal for whiffing information.

I suppose there is a sister publication on rotary aircraft.

Gondor

[TheChronicOne]

Lords of the Plains!

[scooter]

Lords of the Plains!

Ooooh... I think SWMBO might be interested in that

[TheChronicOne]

It's supposed to be reeeeeeally good and was recommended by quite a few people on a Reddit thread I saw recently about that time period. I am looking forward to reading it.... going to be some good evening down time with this one, I suspect.

Cool thing is for me is I live right in the middle of where a lot of this takes place. I drive down Quanah Parker Trailway every morning to work. I live in Comanche county. Quanah Parker's Star House where he spent his last years is about 8 miles west of here and I've seen it (from the outside).

It's going to be really fun learning new stuff about all this and I might even plan a field trip to do some sight seeing once I get into it. Kind of like an interactive experience.

[NARSES2]

It's going to be really fun learning new stuff about all this and I might even plan a field trip to do some sight seeing once I get into it. Kind of like an interactive experience.

Do that if you can. Being able to actually visit where you are reading about and go and see the places where the events happened really does enable you to start "feeling" the actual events and gives you a much greater insight.

[Logan Hartke]

My wife read this and she raves about it. She's very critical of history books since she's finishing her Masters in Public History and apparently it exceeded her high standards.

Cheers,

Logan

[TheChronicOne]

Glad to hear it! That's a pretty solid endorsement.  I'm more and more weary of "history" these days so I would hate to pollute my mind with bad information. 



Chris, you know who else tooled around here? Geronimo and Jesse James. I could potentially add their "attractions" into my sight seeing tour as well? Future plans, though. I probably won't even start on the book until colder months.

[Gondor]

Came home from work to find a package hiding behind the door containing

Osprey Air Combat series on the Boeing B-47 Stratojet

This fills a gap in my knowledge and a gap in my library

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Chris, you know who else tooled around here? Geronimo and Jesse James. I could potentially add their "attractions" into my sight seeing tour as well? Future plans, though. I probably won't even start on the book until colder months.

A great chance to separate the history from the myth