Description

This book is very well written and structured. It starts with history of the development airfield and the progressive development of testing method. The individual commanders and various staff are biographied in light hearted and sympathic way. This first part of the book is set in the context of aircraft development over the period with reference to land mark aircraft tested. This lightens what would otherwise a rather dry account.
The second part of the book covers 400 aircraft tested whether they were successful or not. Extracts of the test reports are included in tables detailing measured results and occasional comments. The text covers aircraft grouped in types of aircraft tested and where appropriate the specifications they were designed for. This makes progress through the book a series of chronological steps through each type of aircraft.
What is striking is how awful a lot of the aircraft submitted were and how the emergence of a successful aircraft seems a matter of chance.
The period covered is one of slow progress up until 1936 when suddenly modern aircraft appear as if by magic.
There is also short section on armaments which includes the no allowance sighting method for upward firing canon set at 40-60 degress against bombers above – very reminiscent of the much later German Schraeger Musik nighter fighter gun installation.
Testing for airworthiness for civil aircraft and for export military aircraft is also detailed.