Found pre WW 2 Airplane book

[Norton]

I found this at a sale.. If you like prewar aircraft you may be interested. I am always facinated with the US build up from 1938 to Novemeber 1941 The book is from Jan 1940. Check out the early B 17 that they call a B15. Also there are weird prototype recon/attack aircraft made by Curtis and Bell .. Some of the pictures have been drawn on by some kid back in the 40s so it's like a time capsule
The text of the book was all Rah Rah go USA we are number one. If anybody takes us on they will find out American Airplanes are the best ect..
Sadly we found out that may not alway be true.
The Brewster Buffalo and P 35, P 37 were looked upon in this book to be state of the art. The Gruman F2 just missed Pearl Harbor by two month

[M1 Tanker]

Wow Norton, that is old school. That kinda looks like a Constellation on cover...and I see drawings of a SBD and P40.

[jmikey]

That is a great find Norton! The older aircraft are fascinating. I grew up with my Father telling stories about the WW1 aircraft. He was a mechanic in WW1 and the changes he saw were nothing short of astounding.

[iocane]

" If anybody takes us on they will find out American Airplanes are the best ect.." Well America is still like that. What really must irritate our enemies is if America decides to have something the best (not just talk), it will be the best. Plus even if the equipment isn't always the best, those using it are.

Remeber reading a old book on airplanes written right after World War One. They really got to the point quick about airplane construction. Not a bunch of words to take up space. One thing they did stress was the need for proper placement of the wires that held the plane togeather, just a few years later wires not needed anymore.
Speaking of flight, a bird just bounced off my window. The bird just bounced off and flew away. Ever heared of the old saying, " Any landing you can walk away from is a good one".

[okie shooter]

Norton, that is a xb-15, a prototype aircraft, predateing the b-17 by Boeing, There was only one built, its coutnterpart would be the Douglas B-19, they were very heavy bombers, larger than a B-17, though you can see from the designs related. If you read, the B-17 was submitted for the medium bomber program as the 299(the winners due to the crash of the 299 prototype,was the douglas b-18, based on a dc-2 airframe. The xb-15 was a totaly different aircraft. Large enough for the flight crew to go into the wings and service the engines, and fly five thousand miles non stop, the other plane specified by the airforce to do this at the time was the b-19, which was until I beleive the b-36 flew was the largest land plane in the world.

P.S. according to some the XB-15 and the proposed XB-20 are more the father of the B-29 over the B-17 family.

Of the rest of those, some are more precedings of more famous aircraft, the three curtis aircraft, are variants of the line that became the P-40, with two with radial engines, and only one with the inline. The Serversky aircraft is the father of the P-47 of Republic, after serversky left the company, and it changed names. The aircuda never made production and the vultee aircraft entered limited service, to be surpassed by other designs(though kinda like a us stuka bomber)

[westcoast]

great find norton,thanks for sharing these with us! it bites too see planes gone and not restored,like losing old friends.it was good to see in vietnam some of the ww2 type prop fighters used in sucessful roles when jets ruled the sky's.

[DaCapster]

I recieved a book from my gradfather ....former military....

The book was about P47's but in the pages was paper with a hand drawn picture of a saucer type craft with a whittle engine~ wierd!

[Norton]

[QUOTE=DaCapster;24550]I recieved a book from my gradfather ....former military....

The book was about P47's but in the pages was paper with a hand drawn picture of a saucer type craft with a whittle engine~ wierd![/QUOTE

can you scan it and post?]

[DaCapster]

ill try to dig it up....been a while ~