"Aeroplane Construction" by Sydney Camm

j ferguson · 13 September 2009, 06:27 PM

I found this wonderful book on Google Books. Go to the book page under Google, then search under Sydney Camm (spelling is important) and you can download a pdf of it complete with illustrations of numerous metal fittings for FREE.

It was written in 1919.

There's a lot of discussion about different varieties of wood and their use in aeroplane construction. He also observes that designing in wood makes sense because the art is advancing so fast you wouldn't want to be inhibited by a huge investment in the tooling required for other types of construction.

This is very similar to an observation by Neville Shute (Norway), the author and founder of Airspeed, the English aeroplane manufacturing concern. Anyone interested in the development of aviation both from a design and business standpoint would find Shute's book "Slide Rule" a delight.

14 September 2009, 03:18 AM

A great find John, thanks very much for sharing it!

Lufbery · 14 September 2009, 05:02 AM

Great find!

For those who are interested, here's the link.

Regards,

drrivah · 14 September 2009, 04:30 PM

Same man penned the following books:

On the Beach
A Town Called Alice

See biography write up:
Nevil Shute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

j ferguson · 14 September 2009, 05:15 PM

On the off chance that there are any engineers reading this who have not read Shute's "Slide Rule", I would be happy to share a story from the book to entice you.

The book has a chapter which starts with an admonition to the reader to skip if he/she is not technically inclined. I would relate a story from that chapter.

Albatros_Ace · 14 September 2009, 08:28 PM

how do you download it?

SCMc · 14 September 2009, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albatros_Ace

how do you download it?

Click on the link in Lufbery post. This will bring up the Google Books web page. On the right side, just above the scroll bar, is the download link (a down arrow beside "PDF").

Steve

Patrick · 14 September 2009, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j ferguson

I found this wonderful book on Google Books. Go to the book page under Google, then search under Sydney Camm (spelling is important) and you can download a pdf of it complete with illustrations of numerous metal fittings for FREE.

Thanks John -- this may be fairly common knowledge here, but for those unfamiliar with Sydney Camm, he became the Chief of Design for HG Hawker in the 1920s, and was responsible for Hawker's most famous 1930s and -40s designs -- the Hart, Fury, Hurricane, Typhoon and Tempest. Somewhere buried in storage I've got a book about his work on the Hurricane. A very brilliant guy who could perfectly balance the design requirements of a great airplane with what could be built on a mass-production factory floor and serviced in the field.

Tim West · 14 September 2009, 10:45 PM

yeah that was a great find! I've already put it to use

thanks for posting the link.

Sreiko · 14 September 2009, 10:54 PM

Not visible download link.... any direct link?