The flyers guide

[NT5224]

Hi folks

 

I just wanted to share this wonderful resource, in case anybody out there hasn't come across it yet.

 

The flyer's guide; an elementary handbook for aviators : Gill, Napier John, 1890- : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

The flyers guide looks like it was written in 1916 or 1917, back in the days when flying was 'stick and rudder' and barely a decade after men first took to the air. What fascinates me is not how elementary our predecessors understanding of aeronautics, but how comparatively advanced it was... Captain Gill knew his stuff! The first section of the book highlights that wartime flight training typically ran to about three hours up ....

 

And it further occurs to me that for many recruits to the Great War, their aviation training may have been their first encounter with the internal combustion engine, as obviously these weren't so widely found in households back then.

 

Cheers

 

Alan

 

 

[farri]

Thank you Alan! I didn`t know there was an Internet Archive.

 

Franco.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

PURE GOLD!

 

If you use the search term 'Aviation' and keep scrolling down you will come across what appears to be every copy of America's premier aviation magazine of the time, Aviation Week, from 1916 to 1960, fascinating reading. Over that time-span the changes are astounding and it covers, of course, WW1, the remarkable developments of the 1930s, WW2, the Korean War, VTOL developments, early space exploration as well as the private, recreational, homebuilt side of things throughout the whole period. Everything's downloadable in various formats too, see the links at lower right of each page. A few example pages, I love the first advertisement -