Hobbs, David Aircraft of the Royal Navy since 1908

This is a comprehensive study of all aircraft types ordered for the Royal Navy since 1908. It includes fixed and rotary wing aircraft, rigid and non-rigid airships, unmanned aeroplanes and unmanned target aircraft. It also includes many designs that were ordered but not built, so that the importance attached to them by the Naval Staff, or their potential impact on aircraft carrier design and operations, can be explained. Each type, including unsuccessful individual prototypes, is described, and most are illustrated with photographs, many of which are from the author's own collection. There are also detailed 3-view drawings for the 50 most important aircraft. The book describes over 400 different types of aircraft built by over 100 different manufacturers, providing the most detailed account of the aircraft produced by the Royal Navy. The research for this book took more than forty years, and reference material was drawn from the Admiralty archives and a range of publicly available material, including manufacturers' data, records of individual aircraft pilots and a wealth of published sources. David Hobbs is in a unique position to write this book, having served as a pilot in the RN for thirty-three years, retiring with the rank of Commander. He flew both fixed and rotary wing aircraft and his logbook contains 2300 flying hours with 807 landings by day and night. He served on seven British aircraft carriers, flew over 20 of the aircraft types described in this book and spent four years in the RN Director General's Department (Aircraft) where he was closely involved in Sea Harrier aircraft carrier trials, introducing new visual landing aids for night landings and liaising with the US Navy on aircraft carrier operating techniques.