Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Wed Apr 20, 2022 3:40 pm

I appreciate your considerable efforts.

If nothing else, it may impress in younger enthusiasts the fact that the "golden age" of flying wasn't all daring stunts by guys in leather jackets in biplanes.

There was quite a bit of science and research in the subject.

Wed May 25, 2022 12:35 am

Going back to technical publications this time, a bunch of Technical Air Intelligence Center documents are available from various places online:

TAIC Confidential Briefs

No. 3 - Japanese Window Dispenser[1]

TAIC Handbooks

TAIC Manuals

No. 1 - Japanese Aircraft: Performance & Characteristics (ISCARL, NDL)
- Supplements Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 to TAIC Manual No. 1
No. 2 - Representative Enemy and Allied Aircraft: Comparative Performance and Characteristics

TAIC Reports

No. 1 - Design Features of Japanese HA 112. Model 2 Direct Fuel Injection Radial Engine[2]
No. 2 - Analysis of Japanese Aviation 'Green' Fuel[3]
No. 3 - Work Factor and Corrosion Tests of Japanese Aviation Oil[4]
No. 5 - Metallurgical Examination and Performance of a Japanese Type 14, CF, 2L Magneto[5]
No. 6 - Metallurgical Examination of Japanese Sakae '12' Engine and Engine Mount[6]
No. 7 - Metallurgical Examinations of Landing Gear Parts from Japanese Aircraft 'Betty'[7]
No. 8 - Examination of Japanese Aircraft Spark Plugs[8]
No. 9 - Design and Performance of Japanese Automatic Pilot, Mark I[9]
No. 10 - Examination and Test of Japanese Aviation Compasses[10]
No. 11 - Luminescence of Enemy Aircraft Instrument Dials[11]
No. 12 - Experimental and Operational Engine Development of the J.A.F.[2]
No. 14 - Metallurgical Examination of a Japanese Sakae 21 Aircraft Engine[12]
No. 15 - Examination of Japanese Airframes from Jill 11, Zeke 11, Val 11, Dinah 2, and Lily 2[13]
No. 16 - Examination of Japanese Meteorological Equipment[14]
No. 17 - Combat Evaluation of Zeke 52 with F4U-1D, F6F-5, and FM-2
No. 18 - Corrosion Resistance of a Japanese Oleo Strut[15]
No. 19 - Examination of Japanese Aircraft Tires[16]
No. 20 - Examination of Japanese Navigational Computer and Bubble Sextant[17]
No. 22 - Examination and Comparison: Japanese Aerial Camera[18]
No. 23 - Metallurgical Examination of Aichi V-12 Japanese Aircraft Engine[19]
No. 24 - Spectro Analysis of Japanese Aircraft Radio Tubes[20]
No. 25 - Metallurgical Examination of Japanese Kinsei 43 Aircraft Engine[21]
No. 26 - Analysis of Captured Japanese Gasoline; Analysis of Captured Japanese and German Hydraulic Fluids[22]
No. 27 - Metallurgical Examination of Japanese Airframe Sections[23]
No. 28 - Metallurgical Examination of Japanese Aircraft Landing Hooks[24]
No. 30 - Metallurgical Examination of a Landing Gear and Wheel from Japanese Aircraft Zeke[25]
No. 31 - Homare 11 and 21 Engines: Principal Characteristics and Performance[26]
No. 32 - Examination and Comparison of Japanese F-8 Aerial Camera with U.S. Navy F-8 Aerial Camera[27]
No. 33 - Preliminary Report on Japanese Frequency Modulated Altimeter Ta Ki 13[28]
No. 34 - Metallurgical Examination of Oscar and Lily Armor Plate[29]
No. 35 - Firing Test of Armor from "Lily" and "Oscar"
No. 37 - Analysis of Gasoline from Tess; Analysis of Two Japanese Greases[30]
No. 38 - Comparative Performance Between Zeke-52 and the P-38, P-51 and P-47
No. 40 - Altitude Limitations Imposed by Japanese Oxygen Equipment[31]
No. 41 - Japanese Balloon and Attached Devices
No. 42 - Metallurgical Examination of Components from Frances and Irving[32]
No. 43 - Firing Test and Metallurgical Examination of Frank Back Plate Armor[33]
No. 44 - Japanese Airborne Radio/Radar[34]
No. 45 - Japanese MAD Equipment[35]
No. 46 - Metallurgical Examination of Japanese Homare-11 Aircraft Engine No. 11515[36]

TAIC Summaries

No. 1 - Technical Air Intelligence: Organization and Functions
No. 2 - Revision of Allied Code Names for Japanese Aircraft[37]
No. 3 - Miscellaneous Japanese Aircraft Development[38]
No. 4 - New Japanese Navy Fighter Jack II Aircraft[39]
No. 5 - New Japanese Fighters and Torpedo Bombers[40]
No. 7 - Betty 22 - G4M2
No. 8 - Miscellaneous Japanese Aircraft Development[41]
No. 9 - Irving II, Land Reconnaissance (J1N1) and Gekko II Night Fighter Aircraft[42]
No. 10 - New Japanese Navy Bomber, Frances II Aircraft[43]
No. 11 - Performance of New Japanese Aircraft[44]
No. 12 - New Japanese Army Aircraft Frank I, Peggy I, and Miscellaneous Developments[45]
No. 13 - Japanese Navy Twin Engine Bomber G4M2 Aircraft[46]
No. 14 - New Japanese Aircraft Types and Miscellaneous Armament Development[47]
No. 15 - New Japanese Aircraft Development[48]
No. 17 - Synopsis of Recent Japanese Aircraft
No. 18 - Judy 12
No. 19 - Technical Air Intelligence Center Summary Index[49]
No. 20 - New Japanese Aircraft Development[50]
No. 21 - High Performance Experimental and Operational Engine Development of the J.A.F.
No. 22 - New Japanese Army Fighter: Frank
No. 23 - Japanese Trainer Aircraft
No. 24 - Myrt II
No. 25 - New Japanese Aircraft Development
No. 26 - Peggy I
No. 27 - Metallurgical Examination of Japanese Airframe Sections[51]
No. 28 - Metallurgical Examination of Japanese Aircraft Landing Hooks[52]
No. 29 - Japanese Aircraft Nomenclature[53]
No. 30 - Recognition of Unidentified Aircraft and New Code Names
No. 31 - Homare 11 and 21 Engines, Principal Characteristics and Performance
No. 31 - Baka Japanese Rocket Propelled Suicide Aircraft[54] [Ed. Unclear why series number has been duplicated.]
No. 32 - Evolution of Zeke[55]
No. 33 - George 11[56]
No. 34 - Miscellaneous Aircraft and Equipment[57]

TAIC Unknown Documents

Assorted Similar Documents

Credit goes to a War Thunder thread and an Il-2 Sturmovik thread for bringing many of these documents to my attention.

EDIT (22-05-27): Add confidential briefs section with 1 entry with reference, 33 report entries with references, 13 summary entries with references. Move 4 entries from summaries to reports section.
EDIT (22-06-20): A BritModeller.com thread and a WW2Aircraft.net thread have links and information on how to access a number of other non-TAIC Japanese aircraft manuals and technical documents - mostly from the same source used for the majority of the entries above.
EDIT (23-11-12): Another group, the Far East Air Force Air Technical Intelligence Group also produced what appears to be a separate series of reports:

FEAF ATIG Reports

No. 36 - Aero Medical Survey Report, Part I[58]
No. 41 - Japanese Rocket Devices for Assisted Takeoff for Aircraft[58]
No. 52 - Turbojets and Rocket Engines (JAF)[58]
No. 53 - Research on High Altitude Oxygen Requirements and Equipment by Tokyo Imperial University[58]
No. 67 - Propeller Section, Aeronautical Research Institute, Tokyo Imperial University[58]
No. 72 - Development of Gas Turbine Propulsion in Japan[58]
No. 75 - High Temperature Alloys Used in Rocket, Jet and Gas Turbine Applications[58]
No. 79 - Brief History of Jet, Turbine and Rocket Development in Japan[58]
No. 87 - Boundary Layer Control Work in Japan[58]
No. 96 - Glider Research Institute, Kyushu Imperial University[58]
No. 101 - Japanese Radar Deception Buoys[58]
No. 105 - Engine Development Projects at Tachikawa Army Air Arsenal[58]
No. 108 - The Institute for High Speed Mechanics at the Tohoku Imperial University, Sendai[58]
No. 111 - Aero Medical Research, Part II, Basic Studies on Vibration[58]
No. 112 - Fundamental Research on High Speed Airfoils in "Supersonic" Wind Tunnel, Tachikawa[58]
No. 113 - Solid Propellants for Rocket Motors, Imperial Japanese Navy[58]
No. 114 - Japanese Radio Controlled Flying Bomb "I-Go"[58]
No. 115 - A Short Survey of Japanese Radar[58]
No. 125 - Interrogation of Professor Sanji Kawada on High Speed Flow Research at the Aeronautical Research Institute, Tokyo Imperial University[58]
No. 131 - Magnetron Research in the Japanese Navy[58]
No. 132 - Japanese Organization for Scientific Research[58]
No. 138 - Japanese Balloon Bombs[58]
No. 140 - Boundary Layer Investigations, 1st Naval Technical Laboratory, Yokosuka[58]
No. 145 - Liquid Fuel Rockets[58]
No. 146 - Japanese Heat Homing Bombs[58]
No. 148 - Some Experiments on Aerofoils, by Professor Ryozo Fukatsu, Tokyo Imperial University[58]
No. 149 - Japanese Air Force Glider Program[58]
No. 158 - Research and Experiments with Shaped Charge Explosives[58]
No. 167 - Aero Medical Research, Part I, Pathology of Rapid Decompression, Anoxia and Oxygen Intoxication in Animals[58]
No. 171 - Japanese Work on Axial Flow Fans[58]
No. 176 - Use of Aviation Psychology, Japanese Army Air Force[58]
No. 192 - Description of Experimental Aircraft and Experimental Engines Under Development by the Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy[58]
No. 201 - High Altitude Chambers, Altitude Training in the JAAF[58]
No. 244 - Long Range Forecast of Ionospheric Data as Applied to Propagation of Radio Waves[58]
No. 252 - Research on Basic Combustion Problems[58]
No. 285 - Smooth Bore Weapons[58]
No. 286 - Summary Report On Power Plants, Jets, Rockets, Turbosuperchargers, Fuels and Propellers (JAF)[58]
No. 290 - Research on the Japanese Balloon Bomb Conducted by the Ninth Military Laboratory[58]

Last edited by Noha307 on Sun Nov 12, 2023 4:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Mon Jun 06, 2022 9:41 pm

Due to the rolling date that material enters the public domain and the way they were found, most of the following materials date to the 1910s and 1920s:

Assorted Books

A Short History of Balloons and Flying Machines. London: The Car Illustrated, 1907.
Aero Engines and Their Lubrication. London: C. C. Wakefield & Company, n.d.
Airplanes and Safety. Hartford, Connecticut: Travelers Insurance Company, 1921.
Ayling, Keith. Flying Furies. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1942.
Bacon, Gertrude. How Men Fly. London: Cassell and Company, 1911.
Bacon, John B. F. Elements of Aviation Engines. San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, 1918.
Bedell, Frederick. Airplane Characteristics: A Systematic Introduction for Flyer and Student and for All Who Are Interested in Aviation. First. Ithaca, New York: Taylor and Company, n.d.
Blakeney, Stepney. How an Aeroplane is Built. Second. London: “Aeroplane” & General Publishing Company, n.d.
Camm, F. J. Model Aeroplanes. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, n.d.
Cavanagh, George A. Model Aeroplanes and Their Engines: A Practical Book for Beginners. New York: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1917.
Chadwick, John C. Aviation Engines. New York City: Edwin N. Appleton, 1919.
David, Evan John. Aircraft: Its Development in War and Peace and Its Commercial Future. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1919.
Duchêne. Flight without Formulæ: Simple Discussions on the Mechanics of the Aeroplane. Translated by John H. Ledeboer. Second. London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1916.
Fage, A. The Aeroplane: A Concise Scientific Study. London: Charles Griffin & Company, 1915.
Flying: The Why and Wherefore. London: The Aero, n.d.
Gill, N. J. The Flyer’s Guide: An Elementary Handbook for Aviators. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1917.
Hallett, George E. Airplane Motors: A Course of Practical Instruction in Their Care and Overhauling for the Use of Military Aviators. Office of the Chief Signal Officer, War Department, 1918.
Henderson, L. R. S. The Magic Aeroplane: A Fairy Tale. Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Company, 1911.
Hispano-Suiza Aeronautical Engines Birkigt Patents Instruction Book. 4A. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation, 1918.
Hispano-Suiza Aeronautical Engines Birkigt Patents Instruction Book. 6H. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation, 1918.
Judge, Arthur W. Elementary Princples of Aeroplane Design and Construction: A Textbook for Students, Draughtsmen, and Engineers. London: James Selwyn and Company, 1919.
Love, Edwin M. Junior Planes. Chicago: Albert Whitman & Company, 1933.
Marks, Lionel S. The Airplane Engine. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1922.
Ott, Lester. Transport Aircraft of the World. New York, NY: Franklin Watts Incorporated, 1944.
Pagé, Victor W. Aviation Engines: Design, Construction, Operation and Repair. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1918.
Pippard, A. J. Sutton, and J. Laurence Prichard. Aeroplane Structures. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1919.
Pollard, Harold. Aero Engines, Magnetos and Carburetors. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918.
Principal Parts of Airplane Engines. War Department, 1919.
Sherbondy, E. H., and G. Douglas Wardrop. Textbook of Aero Engines. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1920.
Talbot, Frederick. All About Aircraft of Today. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, n.d.
Thomas, O. W. Instructions in Aviation for Beginners. Ithaca, NY: Thomas School of Aviation, 1915.
Verrill, A. Hyatt. Harper’s Aircraft Book: Why Aeroplanes Fly, How to Make Models, and All About Aircraft, Little and Big. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1913.
Wright “T” Series Aviation Engines. Paterson, New Jersey: Wright Aeronautical Corporation, 1924.

Finally, a collection of reports from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics - including many from World War II - is available on the Internet Archive courtesy of the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida.

Sun Jul 03, 2022 8:49 pm

Similar to the aerospace manufacturer logos thread, I recently came across a publication called Japanese Aircraft Manual that motivated me to try to find 3-view drawings of aircraft to add to Wikipedia articles that are missing them. (The images I have uploaded so far are available on a section of my Wikimedia Commons userpage.) Unfortunately, that publication seems to be nearly unique, as almost all of the other ones are understandably black silhouettes - not white outlines that can be cleaned up easily with an image editing program. Partially to help eliminate redundancy, I decided to make a list of as many sources of wartime aircraft recognition materials as possible:

Military Manuals

AP 1764 - Aircraft Recognition[1]
AP 1780A - Recognition Handbook of British Aircraft[2]
Bulletin 105-45 - Japanese Operational Aircraft: "Know Your Enemy!" [Ed. Transcribed with scanned silhouettes.]
Bulletin 105-45 - Japanese Operational Aircraft: "Know Your Enemy!" (Revised) [Ed. Transcribed with scanned silhouettes.]
FM 21-7 - List of War Department Films, Film Strips, and Recognition Film Slides
FM 30-30 - Military Intelligence: Identification of U. S. Government Aircraft (September 1940, February 1942)
FM 30-30/BuAer 3 - Recognition Pictorial Manual (AAW, ECU, HNSA, ISCARL, HW, WC) [Ed. HNSA example transcribed with scanned silhouettes. This manual is a very different format from the previous entry despite retaining the same field manual number. Three Aircraft Supplements - Nos. 1, 2, and 3 - also exist.[3]]
FM 30-31 - Military Intelligence: Identification of British Aircraft[4]
FM 30-34 - Military Intelligence: Identification of Soviet-Russian Aircraft
FM 30-35 - Military Intelligence: Identification of German Aircraft
FM 30-38 - Military Intelligence: Identification of Japanese Aircraft (March 1941, March 1942)
FM 30-39 - Military Intelligence: Identification of Italian Aircraft
N/A - Aircraft Identification from Photographic Interpretation Handbook [Ed. Transcribed with scanned silhouettes.]
N/A - Aircraft Recognition, Part 1-(British)[x1]
N/A - Handbook of Aircraft Recognition[5]
ONI 232 - Japanese Military Aircraft [Ed. Transcribed with scanned silhouettes.]
ONI 233 - Italian Military Aircraft[6]
ONI 234 - German Military Aircraft[6]
ONI 249 - Japanese Aircraft Manual (HT, NDL)
TAIC Manual No. 1 - Japanese Aircraft Performance & Characteristics (ISCARL, NDL)
TM-E 30-480 - Handbook on Japanese Military Forces (HT, Pg. 62; HW, Sec. IV)
T.O. 00-40-1 - Silhouette Handbook of United States Army Air Forces Airplanes
T.O. 00-40-2 - Distribution of Recognition Material[7]
T.O. 00-40-3 - Composition of Airplane Model Sets
T.O. 00-40-3A - Composition of Airplane Model Sets[7]
T.O. 00-40-4 - Composition of Tank and Combat Vehicle Model Sets
T.O. 00-40-5 - Recognition of Aircraft by the WEFT System
T.O. 00-40-6 - Composition of Ship Model Sets

Public Documents

Aeronautics Aircraft Spotters' Guide (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4)[8][9][10][11]
Aeronautics Aircraft Spotters' Handbook[12]
Aeroplane Recognition Tests (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)[x2][x3][x4][x5][x6][x7]
Aircraft Identification: Friend or Foe? [Ed. Transcribed with scanned silhouettes.]
Aircraft Identification: The Official Manual of Instruction
Aircraft Recognition[13]
Aircraft Recognition Guide[14]
Aircraft Spotter[15]
Building Model War Planes
Buster Brown's Aircraft Spotters Chart
Flight: Identification Chart of American Aircraft
Hints for Air Spotters
How to Identify Warplanes
Identification of Aircraft for Army Air Forces Ground Observer Corps
Japanese Aircraft
Oddentification
Plane Chart and Guide to Insignia of Rank
Scale Silhouettes, Photographs and "Oddentifications" of Well-Known British, American and German First-Line Aeroplanes
Silhouettes of British, American and German Aircraft Listed for the Third Grade Test of the Royal Observer Corps
Silhouettes of British, American, German and Italian Aircraft Listed for the Second Grade Test of the Royal Observer Corps
The Aeroplane Spotter (Vol. 1, No. 6, Vol. 1, No. 7, Vol. 1, No. 8, Vol. 1, No. 9 Vol 1, No. 10)
U.S. Army-Navy Journal of Recognition (Nos. 1-4, Nos. 5-8, Nos. 9-12, Nos. 13-16, Nos. 17-20, Nos. 21-24)
[Untitled]
Watch for These Enemy Planes with Your Warden Scope
What's That Plane: How to Identify American and Japanese Airplanes[16]

Posters

Recognition Division, Training Aids Directorate, Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics
- No. 523 - F4U-Corsair[17]
Naval Aviation Training Division
- Avro Lancaster[18]
- Blohm und Voss HA. 183B[19]
- Bristol Blenheim[20]
- Cantiere Z-1007 bis[21]
- Curtiss Helldiver[19]
- Curtiss Seagull[22]
- Douglas Skymaster[23]
- Fairey Fulmar[24]
- Handley Page Hampden[25]
- Heinkel He 177[20]
- Kawasaki Type 3[20]
- Lockheed Lodestar[22]
- Martin Mariner[22]
- Messerschmitt Me-210[21]
- Messerschmitt ME-323[20]
- Mitsubishi Type 00[26]
- Mitsubishi Type 97[21]
- Mitsubishi Type 100 MK-1[23]
- North American Mustang[27]
- Short Stirling[28]
- Stormovik[29]
- TB-7[22]
- Type 2[30]
- Vickers Wellington[21]
- Vought Sikorsky Kingfisher[19]
- Vultee Vengeance[31]
- Watanabe Type O MK-1[32]
Various

Slides

Naval Recognition Training Slides - Grand Valley State University
U.S. Navy WWII Recognition Training Slides - State Archives of North Carolina

Training Films

World War I

Foreign

Aircraft Currently in Use by the Japanese Military (Source)
[Aircraft Identification Poster Depicting Lockheed P-38 Lightning and Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat]
[Aircraft Identification Poster Depicting SB2U, P-47, B-17, TBF, F4U, YFM, P-39 and F4F]
Enemy Aircraft Recognition Chart (Source)
Flugzeug Erkennungsdienst (Part 1)[33]
Flugzeug Erkennungsdienst (Part 2)[34]
Nr. 321 - Unterrichsfilm: Eindecker, Einmotorig (Roll 1, Roll 1, Roll 2, Roll 3)
Nr. 323 - Unterrichsfilm: Eindecker - Zweimotorig Doppelseitenleitwerk (Roll 1, Roll 2)
[Unknown]

Finally, even though they're not printed documents, it's worth mentioning Cruver aircraft recognition models. For more information, there are a number of good articles including ones from: 99% Invisible, Airplanes and Rockets, Collectair, The Joystick Club. There's also a Facebook group for collectors. There were also black cardboard style sheet models that were produced during the war. As mentioned in a blog post, they are profiled in the book Building Model War Planes for the Army and Navy.

EDIT (22-07-10): Add entry and link 1 military manual and 8 posters. Add link to additional example of Recognition Pictorial Manual. Add note to Recognition Pictorial Manual about Aircraft Supplements.

EDIT (22-07-12): After finishing this post, I remembered that there is a collection of aircraft recognition posters at our museum. I took the opportunity to inventory them today for the dual purpose of good collections management and as a reference for this post. For the sake of simplicity, I elected to include them below rather than try to integrate them into the list above:

Posters (Upper Left Text - Top Center Text - Date)

Germany (x25)
- Army - Arado "Ar 196" - February 1943
- Army - Blohm und Voss "B.V.-141" - February 1944
- Army - Dornier "217E" - November 1942
- Army - Focke-Wulf "Fw 190" - November 1942
- Army - Glider Research "D.F.S. 230" - February 1944
- Army - Gotha "Go 242" - December 1942
- Army - Heinkel "He 111K" - November 1942
- Army - Heinkel "He 177" - December 1942
- Army - Henschel "Hs-126" - February 1944
- Army - Henschel "Hs-129" - February 1944
- Army - Junkers "Ju 52" - November 1942
- Army - Junkers "Ju 88 A6" - January 1943
- Army - Junkers "Ju 90" New Type - March 1943
- Army - Junkers "Ju. 90" Old Type - November 1942
- Army - Messerschmitt "Me 109F" - November 1942
- Army - Messerschmitt "Me 110" - November 1942
- Army - Messerschmitt "Me-210" - February 1943
- Army - Messerschmitt "Me-323" - February 1944
- Army Fi-156 - Fieseler "Storch" - February 1944
- Army Fw 189 - Focke-Wulf "Flying Eye" - November 1942
- Army Fw 200K - Focke-Wulf "Kurier" - November 1942
- Army Ju 87B Italy, Breda-201 - Junkers "Stuka" - November 1942
- Navy - Blohm und Voss "B.V.-222" - February 1944
- Navy - Blohm und Voss "Ha. 138B" - January 1943
- Navy - Heinkel "Heinkel 115K2" - November 1942
Italy (x5)
- Army - Cantiere "Z-1007 bis" - March 1943
- Army - Fiat "G-50" - March 1943
- Army - Macchi "MC-202" - March 1943
- Army - Reggiane "Re-2001" - February 1943
- Army - Savoia-Marchetti "SM-79" - February 1943
Japan (x20)
- Army & Navy MacArthur Name "Nate" - Nakajima "Type 97" (also Mitsubishi) - February 1943
- Army MacArthur Name "Dinah" - Mitsubishi "Type 100 Mk-1" - February 1944
- Army MacArthur Name "Lily" - Mitsubishi "Type 99" Kawasaki - February 1944
- Army MacArthur Name "Oscar" - Nakajima "Type 01 Mk-1" - February 1944
- Army MacArthur Name "Sally" - Mitsubishi "Type 97" - February 1943
- Army MacArthur Name "Topsy" - Mitsubishi "MC 20" - January 1943
- MacArthur Name "Jake" - Watanabe "Type 0 Mk-1" - February 1944
- MacArthur Name "Tony" - Kawasaki "Type 3" - February 1944
- Navy MacArthur Name "Betty" - Mitsubishi "Type 01" - January 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Dave" - Nakajima "Type 95" - February 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Emily" - "Type 2" - February 1944
- Navy MacArthur Name "Hamp" - Mitsubishi "Type 00 Mk-2" (Square Wing Tips) - March 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Kate" - Nakajima "Type 97" (also Mitsubishi) - February 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Mavis" - Kawanishi "Type 97" - January 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Nell" - Mitsubishi "Type 96" - February 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Pete" - Sasebo "Type 00" - March 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Rufe" - Mitsubishi "Type 00" - February 1944
- Navy MacArthur Name "Val II" - Aichi "Type 99 Mk-2" - February 1944
- Navy MacArthur Name "Val" - Aichi "Type 99" - March 1943
- Navy MacArthur Name "Zeke" - Mitsubishi "Type 00" - February 1943
Soviet Union (x12)
- Army - "DB-3" - February 1944
- Army - "DB-3F" - February 1944
- Army - "MiG-3" (I-18) - February 1944
- Army - "Pe-2" - February 1944
- Army - "SB-3" - February 1944
- Army - "Su-2" - February 1944
- Army - "TB-7" - February 1944
- Army - "Yak-1" (I-26) - February 1944
- Army - "Yak-4" - February 1944
- Army - Super-Rata "I-16C" - February 1944
- Army Germany B-71 - "SB-2" - February 1944
- Army Il-2, Il-3 - "Stormovik" - February 1944
United Kingdom (x20)
- Army - Handley-Page "Halifax" - December 1942
- Fleet Air Arm - Fairey "Fulmar" - February 1944
- Fleet Air Arm - Fairey "Swordfish" - February 1944
- R.A.F. - Air Speed [sic] "Horsa" - February 1944
- R.A.F. - Avro "Lancaster" - December 1942
- R.A.F. - Bristol "Beaufort" - November 1942
- R.A.F. - de Havilland "Mosquito" - February 1943
- R.A.F. - General "Hamilcar" - February 1944
- R.A.F. - General "Hotspur II" - February 1944
- R.A.F. - Handley Page "Hampden" - April 1943
- R.A.F. - Hawker "Typhoon" - March 1943
- R.A.F. - Short "Sunderland" - February 1943
- R.A.F. - U.K. "Blenheim Mk IV" - April 1943
- R.A.F. "Beaufighter I" - Bristol "Beaufighter" - November 1942
- R.A.F. "Mk IIC" - Hawker "Hurricane - November 1942
- R.A.F. "Spirfire V" - Supermarine "Spitfire" - November 1942
- R.A.F. "Wellington" IV, V - Vickers "Wellington" - December 1942
- R.A.F. Fleet Air Arm - Fairey "Albacore" - December 1942
- R.A.F. Stirling Mk1 & 2 - Short "Stirling" - November 1942
- R.A.F. U.K. "Whitley V" - Armstrong-Whitworth "Whitley" - April 1943
United States (x38)
- Army A-20 A, B, Navy BD-1, 2, U.K. "Boston" I, II, III, "Havoc" I, II, French DB-7B - Douglas "A-20" - November 1942
- Army A-30 U.K. "Baltimore" "Baltimore" I, II (Without Turret) - Martin "Baltimore" - November 1942
- Army A-31 U.K. "Vengeance" - Vultee "Vengeance" - November 1942
- Army B-17E U.K. "Fortress II" - Boeing "Super Flying Fortress" - November 1942
- Army B-26-B U.K. "Marauder" - Martin "Marauder" - March 1943
- Army L4-A [sic] Navy NE-1 - Piper "Grasshopper" - February 1944
- Army L-5 - Stinson "Sentinel" - February 1944
- Army P-38E U.K. "Lightning" - Lockheed "Lightning" - November 1942
- Army P-39E U.K. "Airacobra" - Bell "Airacobra" - December 1942
- Army P-40F U.K. "Warhawk" - Curtiss "Warhawk" - November 1942
- Army P-47 - Republic "Thunderbolt" - January 1943
- Army P-51 U.K. "Mustang" - North American "Mustang" - November 1942
- Army R.A.F. "Hadrian I" - Waco "CG-4A" - February 1944
- Navy - Curtiss "SOC" - February 1944
- Navy F4F-4 (Martin-FM-1) [sic] U.K. "Martlet" I, II - Grumman "Wildcat" - October 1942
- Navy F4U-1 (F3A-1, FG-1) - Vought Sikorsky "Corsair" - October 1942
- Navy F6F - Grumman "Hellcat" - February 1943
- Navy J2F Army OA-12 - Grumman "Duck" - February 1944
- Navy OS2U U.K. "Kingfisher" - Vought Sikorsky "Kingfisher" - February 1944
- Navy OS2U-3 U.K. "Kingfisher I" - Vought Sikorsky "Kingfisher" (Landplane) - October 1942
- Navy PB2Y-3 - Consolidated "Coronado" - November 1942
- Navy PB4Y-1 Army B-24E U.K. "Liberator II" - Consolidated "B-24E" - November 1942
- Navy PBJ-1 Army B-25C U.K. "Mitchell" - North American "Mitchell" - November 1942
- Navy PBM-3 U.K. "Mariner" - Martin "Mariner" - February 1943
- Navy PBO-1 Army A-29 AT-18, C-63 U.K. "Hudson III" - Lockheed "Hudson" - November 1942
- Navy PBY-5 (and PBN-1) Army OA-10 U.K. "Catalina" I, III Russian, GST-1 - Consolidated "Catalina" - October 1942
- Navy PV-3 Army B-34 U.K. "Ventura" - Vega "Ventura" - February 1943
- Navy R4D Army C-47 to 53 U.K. Dakota - Douglas "Skytrain" - January 1943
- Navy R-50 [sic] Army C-59, C-60 - Lockheed "Lodestar" - February 1943
- Navy R5C-1 Army C-46 - Curtiss "Commando" - February 1943
- Navy R5D-1 Army C-54A - Douglas "Skymaster" - March 1943
- Navy SB2C-1 SBW Army A-25 - Curtiss "Helldiver" - November 1942
- Navy SB2C-2 - Curtiss "Helldiver" - January 1943
- Navy SBD-3, 4, 5 Army A-24 U.K. A-24 - Douglas "Dauntless" - October 1942
- Navy SNJ-3 Army AT-6A U.K. "Harvard II" - North American "Texan" - February 1943
- Navy SO3C-1 (Ryan SOR-1) - Curtiss "Seagull" - October 1942
- Navy SO3C-2 U.K. "Seamew" - Curtiss "Seagull" - January 1943
- Navy TBF-1 (TBM-1) - Grumman "Avenger" - October 1942

Finally, a few observations:

Most, but not all, posters printed in 1944 have "U.S. Government Printing Office : 1944 -O-572602" at the bottom. The examples from 1942-1943 are generally credited to the "U.S. Naval Aviation Training Division" and the examples from 1944 are generally credited to the "U.S. Navy, Bureau of Aeronautics".
As a whole, the posters display a distinct lack of consistency. Examples include:
- Designations featuring differences in capitalization of manufacturer prefixes and punctuation of the separator (e.g. hyphens, periods, and spaces).
- Nicknames are generally used in place of designations when they exist and/or are known.
- The character used for the number one ("1") is replaced by the ninth letter of the alphabet ("I") in 1944. Similarly, the number zero ("0") is replaced by the fifteenth letter of the alphabet ("O") in some cases by 1943. This results in certain designations appearing to be incorrect (e.g. "NE-1" is rendered as "NE-I").
- A limited, but surprising number of errors are also present (e.g. "R-50" instead of "R5O", "L4-A" instead of "L-4A").
All of the above serves to cause a considerable amount of confusion in a series of documents whose entire raison d'être is to reduce it. Furthermore, these issues are all self-imposed. Problems of inaccuracy due to poor intelligence of the enemy is entirely separate.

EDIT (22-07-18): Add entry and link to Building Model War Planes. It was mentioned in a previous post, but has been added here for the sake of completeness.

EDIT (22-11-13): The National Air and Space Museum has a collection of U.S. Navy World War II Aircraft Recognition Model Plans and the order form includes a list of the drawings organized by code. It has been reproduced below:

Plans (Code - Aircraft)

Set A
- A-1 - Brewster F2A-3
- A-2 - Grumman F4F-4
- A-3 - Douglas SBD-3
- A-4 - Vought OS2U-1
- A-5 - Douglas TBD-1
- A-6 - Consolidated PBY-5
- A-7 - Consolidated PB2Y-3
- A-8 - Bell P-39D
- A-9 - Curtiss P-40E
- A-10 - Northrop A-17A
- A-11 - Douglas A-20A
- A-12 - Boeing B-17E
- A-13 - Douglas DC-3
- A-14 - Messerschmitt Me 109 [Bf 109]
- A-15 - Heinkel He 111
- A-16 - Sento Ki-001
- A-17 - Baku Ki-99
- A-18 - Mitsubishi Type 96 Bomber [G3M1-3 Nell]
- A-19 - Supermarine Spitfire
- A-20 - Vickers Armstrong Wellington
Set B
- B-1 - Curtiss SBC-4
- B-2 - Martin PBM-1
- B-3 - Brewster SB2A-1
- B-4 - Grumman JRF-4
- B-5 - Lockheed P-38E
- B-6 - Martin B-26C
- B-7 - Republic P-43
- B-8 - Consolidated B-24D
- B-9 - Lockheed Lodestar
- B-10 - Messerschmitt Me 110 [Bf 110]
- B-11 - Junkers Ju 87B
- B-12 - Junkers Ju 88A-1
- B-13 - Dornier Do 18K
- B-14 - Mitsubishi Type 96 Fighter [A5M1-4 Claude]
- B-15 - Nakajima Type 97 Torpedo Bomber [B5N1 Kate]
- B-16 - Nakajima Type 95 Observation Seaplane [E8N1]
- B-17 - Hawker Hurricane
- B-18 - Bristol Blenheim
- B-19 - Ilyushin I-16 [Polykarpov I-16]
- B-20 - Savoia Marchetti SM.82
Set C
- C-1 - Grumman F3F-2
- C-2 - Vought SB2U-3
- C-3 - Stinson L-1A
- C-4 - Boeing Clipper [Model 314]
- C-5 - Heinkel He 113
- C-6 - Saro Lerwick
- C-7 - Blackburn Skua
- C-8 - Boulton Paul Defiant
- C-9 - Handley Page Hampden
- C-10 - Fokker T-8-W
Set D
- D-1 - Curtiss SO3C-1
- D-2 - Curtiss SOC-3
- D-3 - Vultee A-31
- D-4 - Focke-Wulf Fw 190
- D-5 - Dornier Do 26
- D-6 - Mitsubishi Type 97 Light Bomber [Ki-30 Ann]
- D-7 - Mitsubishi Type 98 Light Bomber [Tachikawa Ki-36 Ida?]
- D-8 - Mitsubishi Type 98 Light Bomber
- D-9 - Short Stirling
- D-10 - Handley Page Halifax
Set E
- E-1 - Vought F4U-1
- E-2 - Grumman TBF-1
- E-3 - North American B-25B
- E-4 - Martin A-30
- E-5 - Bristol Beaufort
- E-6 - Bristol Beaufighter
- E-7 - Short Sunderland
- E-8 - Heinkel He 115K-2
- E-9 - Mikado Type 98 (FIAT BR-20)
- E-10 - Kawanishi Type 97 [H6K5 Mavis]
Set F
- F-1 - Bristol Aeronautical LRQ-1
- F-2 - North American SNJ-3
- F-3 - North American P-51
- F-4 - Curtiss C-46
- F-5 - Focke-Wulf Fw 189
- F-6 - Focke-Wulf Fw 200K
- F-7 - Mitsubishi Type 0 Fighter [A6M5 Zeke]
- F-8 - Mitsubishi Type 1 Medium Bomber [G4M2 Betty]
- F-9 - DeHavilland Mosquito [D.H.98]
- F-10 - Avro Lancaster
Set G
- G-1 - Curtiss SB2C-1
- G-2 - Republic P-47D
- G-3 - Lockheed B-34
- G-4 - Messerschmitt Me 210
- G-5 - Junkers Ju 52
- G-6 - Nakajima Type 2 Fighter Floatplane [A6M2-N Rufe]
- G-7 - Aichi Type 99 Bomber [D3A1-2 Val]
- G-8 - Mitsubishi Type 0 Fighter [A6M1-8 Hamp]
- G-9 - Yakovlev YAK-4
- G-10 - Petlyakov PE-2

(Source: National Air and Space Museum)

EDIT (22-12-15): In addition to the posters and plans, the Naval Aviation Training Division also produced a few sets of View-Master reels:

Reels (Number - Aircraft)

Study Set
- S1 - Lockheed P-38E Lightning[35]
- S2 - Republic P-47B Thunderbolt[36]
- S3 - North American P-51 Mustang[37]
- S4 - Lockheed Hudson[38]
- S5 - Martin A-30 Baltimore[39]
- S6 - Vultee A-31 Vengeance[40]
- S7 - North American B-25B Mitchell[41]
- S8 - Martin B-26B-1 Marauder[42]
- S9 - Consolidated B-24 Liberator[43]
- S10 - Curtiss O-52[44]
- S11 - Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat[45]
- S12 - Vought-Sikorsky F4U-1 Corsair[46]
- S13 - Curtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver[47]
- S14 - Douglas SBD-3, -4 Dauntless[48]
- S15 - Vought-Sikorsky SB2U-3 Vindicator[49]
- S16 - Grumman TBF-1 Avenger[50]
- S17 - Curtiss SO3C-1 Seagull[51]
- S18 - Vought-Sikorsky OS2U-1 Kingfisher[52]
- S19 - ?
- S20 - Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina[53]
- S21 - Consolidated PB2Y-3 Coronado[54]
- S22 - Martin PBM-3 Mariner[55]
- S23 - Hawker Hurricane I, II[56]
- S24 - Vickers-Armstrong Spitfire V[57]
- S25 - ?
- S26 - Focke-Wulf Fw 187 Zerstorer[58]
- S27 - Henkel He 113[59]
- S28 - Messerschmitt Me 109 F[60]
- S29 - Messerschmitt Me 110[61]
- S30 - Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Flying Eye[62]
- S31 - Junkers Ju 87 B Stuka[63]
- S32 - Heinkel He 111K[64]
- S33 - Junkers Ju 88 A-1[65]
- S34 - ?
- S35 - Mitsubishi Type 00 Zero-Zeke[66]
- S36 - Nakajima (Mitsubishi) Type 97 Abdul[67]
- S37 - Aichi Type 99 Val[68]
- S38 - Kawasaki Type 97 Mary[69]
- S39 - Mitsubishi Type 97 Babs[70]
- S40 - Mitsubishi Type 98 Ida[71]
- S41 - Mitsubishi Type 98 Sonia[72]
- S42 - Nakajima (Mitsubishi) Type 97 Kate[73]
- S43 - Nakajima Type 97 Adam[74]
- S44 - Kawasaki Type 98 Dick[75]
- S45 - Mitsubishi Type 98 Ruth[76]
- S46 - Mitsubishi Type 96 Nell[77]
- S47 - Mitsubishi (Nakajima) Type 97 Sally[78]
- S48 - I-16[79]
- S49 - Pe-2[80]
- S50 - Il-2 Stormovik[81]
- S51 - ?
- S52 - ?
- S53 - ?
- S54 - ?
- S55 - ?
- S56 - ?
- S57 - ?
- S58 - ?
- S59 - ?
- S60 - ?
- S61 - ?
- S62 - ?
- S63 - ?
- S64 - ?
- S65 - ?
- S66 - ?
- S67 - Bristol Beaufighter II[82]
- S68 - ?
- S69 - ?
- S70 - ?
- S71 - Fiat CR.42[82]
- S72 - ?
- S73 - ?
- S74 - Fairey Barracuda[82]
Test Set
- T1 - Sonia, Kate, Zero-Zeke, Abdul, Ida, Sally, Val[83]
- T2 - Val, Kate, Abdul, Sally, Sonia, Zero-Zeke, Ida[84]
- T3 - ?
- T4 - Ida, Kate, Sally, Zero-Zeke, Val, Abdul, Sonia[85]
- T5 - ?
- T6 - Zero-Zeke, Sonia, Sally, Abdul, Kate, Val, Ida[86]
- T7 - Kate, Sonia, Val, Sally, Ida, Abdul, Zero-Zeke[87]
- T8 - Ruth, Mary, Flying Eye, Nell, Il-2, Babs, Hudson[88]
- T9 - Hudson, Mary, Nell, Babs, Ruth, Flying Eye, Il-2[89]
- T10 - Babs, Mary, Il-2, Ruth, Nell, Hudson, Flying Eye[90]
- T11 - ?
- T12 - Nell, Mary, Hudson, Il-2, Flying Eye, Ruth, Babs[91]
- T13 - Flying Eye, Ruth, Babs, Nell, Mary, Hudson, Il-2[92]
- T14 - Mary, Ruth, Hudson, Babs, Il-2, Nell, Flying Eye[93]
- T15 - Coronado, Corsair, He 113, Liberator, Me 110, Mustang, Zerstorer[94]
- T16 - Corsair, Coronado, Zerstorer, Mustang, Me 110, Liberator, He 113[95]
- T17 - He 113, Coronado, Mustang, Liberator, Corsair, Zerstorer, Me 110[96]
- T18 - Liberator, Coronado, Me 110, Corsair, Mustang, He 113, Zerstorer[97]
- T19 - Me 110, Coronado, Liberator, Zerstorer, He 113, Mustang, Corsair[98]
- T20 - Zerstorer, Corsair, Liberator, Mustang, Coronado, He 113, Me 110[99]
- T21 - ?
- T22 - ?
- T23 - ?
- T24 - Dauntless, Vengeance, Helldiver, Marauder, Avenger, Baltimore, Texan[100]
- T25 - Baltimore, Vengeance, Avenger, Dauntless, Marauder, Texan, Helldiver[101]
- T26 - Marauder, Texan, Helldiver, Baltimore, Vengeance, Avenger, Dauntless[102]
- T27 - ?
- T28 - Texan, Vengeance, Marauder, Baltimore, Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger[103]
- T29 - O-52, I-16, Seagull, Dick, Vindicator, Stirling, Me 109 F[104]
- T30 - Me 109 F, I-16, Dick, Stirling, O-52, Seagull, Vindicator[105]
- T31 - Stirling, I-16, Vindicator, O-52, Dick, Me 109 F, Seagull[106]
- T32 - Vindicator, I-16, Stirling, Seagull, Me 109 F, Dick, O-52[107]
- T33 - Dick, I-16, Me 109 F, Vindicator, Seagull, O-52, Stirling[108]
- T34 - Seagull, I-16, O-52, Me 109F, Stirling, Vindicator, Dick[82]
- T35 - I-16, Me 109 F, Stirling, Vindicator, Dick, Seagull, O-52[109]
- T36 - Hurricane, Claude, Mariner, Stuka, Pe-2, Wildcat, Adam[110]
- T37 - Adam, Claude, Stuka, Wildcat, Hurricane, Mariner, Pe-2[111]
- T38 - Wildcat, Claude, Pe-2, Hurricane, Stuka, Adam, Mariner[112]
- T39 - Pe-2, Claude, Wildcat, Mariner, Adam, Stuka, Hurricane[113]
- T40 - Stuka, Claude, Adam, Pe-2, Mariner, Hurricane, Wildcat[114]
- T41 - ?
- T42 - Claude, Hurricane, Adam, Wildcat, Pe-2, Stuka, Mariner[115]
- T43 - Kingfisher, Mitchell, He 111K, Catalina, Ju 88, Thunderbolt, Lightning[116]
- T44 - ?
- T45 - Lightning, Mitchell, Ju 88, Kingfisher, Catalina, Spitfire, He 111K[117]
- T46 - Thunderbolt, Mitchell, Lightning, He 111K, Spitfire, Catalina, Kingfisher[118]
- T47 - ?
- T48 - Catalina, Kingfisher, Lightning, Ju 88, Mitchell, Spitfire, Thunderbolt[119]
- T49 - He 111K, Kingfisher, Spitfire, Lightning, Thunderbolt, Ju 88, Catalina[120]
- T50 - Mitchell, Thunderbolt, He 111K, Lightning, Catalina, Spitfire, Ju 88[121]
- T51 - ?
- T52 - ?
- T53 - ?
- T54 - ?
- T55 - ?
- T56 - ?
- T57 - ?
- T58 - ?
- T59 - ?
- T60 - ?
- T61 - ?
- T62 - ?
- T63 - ?
- T64 - ?
- T65 - SM.79, Flying Fortress, Albacore, Wellington II, Do 217E, Blenheim IV, Sunderland[82]
- T66 - ?
- T67 - ?
- T68 - ?
- T69 - ?
- T70 - Halifax, SM.82, Lancaster I, MiG-3 (I-18), Fiat CR.42, Barracuda, Cant Z.506B[82]
- T71 - Cant Z.506B, MiG-3 (I-18), Lancaster I, Havoc or Boston, Halifax, Fiat CR.42, Barracuda[82]
Unknown
- No. 3 - P-51[122]
- No. 6 - A-24[122]
- No. 9 - A-29[122]
- No. 10 - B-25[122]
- No. 20 - Cantiere Z.506B[122]
- No. 21 - Piaggio P.32[122]
- No. 22 - Savoia Marchetti SM.79[122]
- No. 23 - Caproni Ca.133[122]
- No. 24 - Savoia Marchetti SM.81[122]
- No. 57 - Mitsubishi 98[122]
- No. 76 - Focke-Wulf Fw 200K[122]

There were also sets of study and test reels of aircraft (AA-S, AA-T) and ships (STS-S, STS-t) for gunners.[123]

EDIT (22-12-18): Given the importance placed on the skill, it shouldn't be surprising that there were a few more recognition materials in addition to the above. For instance, packs of Aircraft Silhouette Recognition Cards was produced by the Naval Aviation Training Division. However, while these were playing cards, they were not exactly the same as the traditional French style as although they had suits - in the form of which view of the aircraft was portrayed - they lacked numbers. This version was originally created by the Royal Air Force, as noted on the manual in a copy in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum. It appears this served as the basis of a later set marketed by Parker Brothers as "Navy WEFTUP".[124] A similar Squadron Scramble game was published by Whitman Publishing (and "approved by the National Aeronautic Association"), but the relationship between the two is unclear. A detailed summary of the set - including variations and scans of the cards - is available on a page on the website Skytamer Images. It is likely that all of these games were influenced by the tobacco cards of the 1930s and earlier. The trend would continue after World War II, with the subject matter switching to Soviet aircraft in later packs, and eventually led to the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Other staples of the entertainment industry also became involved in the recognition teaching effort. Disney produced a series of training films for use in the WEFT system.[125] A Wikipedia page has a partially uncited list of potential entries in the series.

Lastly, entries and links have been added for Recognition of Aircraft by the WEFT System and List of War Department Films, Film Strips, and Recognition Film Slides.

EDIT (23-06-03): Apparently, there was another set of large aircraft recognition posters in addition to the ones listed in a previous edit. This second set used the older style black silhouettes similar to those seen in T.O. 00-40-1 mentioned above, instead of the later grayscale versions. According to a WIX post, the aircraft depicted include:

Beech C-45
Boeing PT-17 Stearman
Brewster F2A Buffalo
Catalina PBY-5
Corsair F4U
Curtiss AT-10
Curtiss SB2C Helldiver
Dornier DO-215
Douglas TBD
Focke-Wulf Kurier
Grumman F4F Wildcat
Grumman TBF Avenger
Heinkel HE-111
JU-87B
Junkers JU-52
Macchi C200
Martin PBM Mariner
Messerschmidt ME-109E
Messerschmitt ME-110
Mitsubishi Type 96 Bomber
Savoia Marchetti SM.79
Vought SB2U Vindicator

In addition, 4 training film entries with links and 5 military manual entries have been added to the lists above.

EDIT (23-09-12): Somehow I missed the fact that AirCorps Library had copies of T.O. 00-40-3, 00-40-4 and 00-40-6 as well as 00-40-5. Links have been added to the list of manuals above, but, seeing as the contents of the kits do not really qualify as documents and this post is already long enough, I have elected to not transcribe the list – at least for the time being. In addition, for anyone who wants to see what the plastic models look like, there is a sales listing with a complete set of the model planes from "Series 1" on the International Military Antiques website. Note that in both cases these are the 1:432 scale models and not the larger ones that most people are familiar with.

EDIT (23-09-22): Yet more aircraft recognition materials have come to my attention. Thanks to a display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, I learned that there was a volvelle, or wheel chart, that was produced as well, 1942-O-457035. An eBay listing has pictures of an example. As shown in an auction listing, a similar Know Your Planes/Plane-o-Graph device was published by Plane Facts, Inc.

The National Museum of the Pacific War also sells three aircraft recognition posters, but although the text at the bottom identifies them as coming from FM 30-30, I can't tell if they actually existed in this format during World War II or they are modern recreations.

Two additional entries have also been added to the public documents section and three to the foreign section.

EDIT (24-06-27): The National Air and Space Museum has a set of 102 recognition slides from the immediate postwar era that they have digitized. Flying magazine apparently got into the act during World War II as well and offered an "Aircraft Identification Kit" of 112 recognition slides.[126]

EDIT (24-08-18): To build upon the above, and not unlike the Squadron Scramble card game, there was a "Spot-a-Plane" board game produced by Toy Creations, Inc.[127]

Also, another rare foreign example, a Japanese aircraft identification poster for the P-38 and F4F, has been added above.

EDIT (25-03-26): Add 6 public documents entries and 1 military manual entry.
EDIT (25-04-20): Add 3 training films and 4 foreign entries.

Last edited by Noha307 on Sun Apr 20, 2025 11:19 pm, edited 18 times in total.

Mon Jul 04, 2022 7:27 pm

Here's an obscure recognition publication, albeit post war, from an almost forgotten American organization....

Aircraft Recognition for the Ground Observer, Department of the Air Force, AF Manual 355-10. April 1955.

It is a softbound 172 page book was intended to be issued to members of the now pretty much forgotten Ground Observer Corps.
The first 46 pages outline the GOC and tell volunteers how to submit reports through the established regional reporting system which was in place to fill gaps in radar coverage in the 1950s.
It was abolished by ADC in 1959.

"Operation SKYWATCH," was initiated on July 14, 1952. Eventually over 800,000 volunteers stood alternating shifts at 16,000 observation posts and seventy-three filter centers."...https://www.radomes.org

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_ ... ganization

This group is not to be confused with the RCAF Ground Observer Corps (which it was based on) or the UK Royal Oberver Corps which existed until the '90s.

The rest of the book is devoted to aircraft, major types have one page with three photos and a three-view, minor, new or obsolecent types get one photo.
0f interest is the new Boeing 367-80, C-130 (with the original "Roman nose"), and an early drawing of the T-37.

Also, North American airline deliveries are shown in the only color section of the book. Most are identical drawings of DC-3s, Convairs and Stratocruisers, also one S-55.

I had a copy of this as a kid, my family copy was pretty much worn out, however, my late uncle left me a copy which has been in my library forever.

Any WIXers have a copy, or do I have a unicorn?
Given the fact most enthusiasts have never heard of the GOC, I suspect it is rare.

Last edited by JohnB on Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mon Jul 04, 2022 7:48 pm

JohnB wrote:Any WIXers have a copy, or do I have a unicorn?

For those who don't and would like to read it, there's a digitized copy on HathiTrust.

EDIT (22-07-10): Happened across a collection of the Ground Observer Corps' magazine, The Aircraft Flash, the other day as well.

Mon Jul 25, 2022 5:05 pm

One of the interesting aspects of this next list is how many of the books are not specifically written for aviation, which demonstrates how new the subject was. In addition, the word "aeroplane" is used far more extensively than "airplane". Finally, note that a number of the entries are repeated in different sections:

Books for Sale by Flying (1919)

Text Books
- Barber, H. The Aeroplane Speaks. Sixth and Revised. London: McBride, Nast & Company, 1918.
- Bedell, Frederick. Airplane Characteristics: A Systematic Introduction for Flyer and Student for All Who Are Interested in Aviation. First. Ithaca, New York: Taylor and Company, 1918.
- Bright, Charles. Telegraphy, Aeronautics and War. London: Constable & Company, 1918.
- Colvin, Fred H. Aircraft Mechanics Handbook. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1918.
- Cowley, W. L., and H. Levy. Aeronautics in Theory and Experiment. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, n.d.
- D’Orcy, Ladislas. D’Orcy’s Airship Manual: An International Register of Airships with a Compendium of the Airship’s Elementary Mechanics. New York: The Century Company, 1917.
- De Guiche, A. de Gramont. Aviator’s Elementary Handbook: A Primer of Aviation and Aëroplane Machines. Translated by Dwight M. Miner. New York: Brentano’s, 1918.
- ———. The Aviator’s Pocket Dictionary and Table-Book. New York: Brentano’s, 1918.
- Dixie, A. E. Air Navigation for Flight Officers. Portsmouth: Gieves Publishing Company, 1917.
- Duchêne. The Mechanics of the Aeroplane: A Study of the Principles of Flight. Translated by John H. Lederboer and T’ O’B Hubbard. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1916.
- Fage, A. The Aeroplane: A Concise Scientific Study. Fourth. London: Charles Griffin & Company, 1917.
- Fales, E. N. Learning to Fly in the U.S. Army: A Manual of Aviation Practice. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1917.
- Gill, N. J. The Flyer’s Guide: An Elementary Handbook for Aviators. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1917.
- Judge, Arthur W. The Properties of Aerofoils and Aerodynamic Bodies: A Text-Book for Aeronautical Engineers, Draughtsmen, and Students. London: Whittaker & Company, 1917.
- King, J. T., and N. W. Leslie. Aeroplane Construction and Assembly. Minneapolis, Minnesota: The William Hood Dunwoody Industrial Institute, 1918.
- Lynn, G. W., and T. T. Gillen. Manual of Army Aeronautics. St. Louis, MO: The Mendle Printing Company, 1917.
- McMinnies, W. G. Practical Flying: Complete Course of Flying Instruction. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918.
- Muller, Hollis Leroy. Manual of Military Aviation. Menasha, Wisconsin: George Banta Publishing Company, 1918.
- Pomilio, Ottorino. Airplane Design and Construction. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1919.
- Rathbun, John B. Aeroplane Construction and Operation. Third. Chicago: Stanton and Van Vliet Company, 1919.
- Re Vley, D. Gordon E. How to Fly (The Flyer’s Manual): A Practical Course of Training in Aviation. San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, 1917.
- Thurston, Albert P. Elementary Aeronautics: Or the Science and Practice of Aerial Machines. London: Whittaker & Company, 1911.
- White, J. Andrew. Practical Aviation for Military Airmen. New York: Wireless Press, 1918.
- Woodhouse, Henry. Textbook of Military Aeronautics. New York: The Century Company, 1918.
- ———. Textbook of Naval Aeronautics. New York: The Century Company, 1917.
- A Textbook of Aeronautics
- Manual for Aero Companies
- Nomenclature for Aeronautics
- Practical Aviation
- Termes D'Aviation
Map Sketching, Signalling and Gunnery
- Barnes, John B. Elements of Military Sketching and Map Reading. Fourth. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1918.
- Benson, C. B. Map Reading for Aviators: With A Chapter on Aerial Navigation. New York: Edwin N. Appleton, 1918.
- Giddings, Howard A. Handbook of Military Signalling. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1917.
- Hutchinson, James M., and Andrew J. MacElroy. Manual of Military Maps. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1918.
- Lewis Machine Gun Handbook
- Machine Guns
- Pocket Signal Chart
- Signal Chart, U.S. Navy & Merchant Marine
- Vickers Machine Gun
Design, Construction and Operation
- “Avion.” The Way to Fly: An Introduction to Flight for Beginners. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1919.
- Barber, H. The Aeroplane Speaks. Sixth and Revised. London: McBride, Nast & Company, 1918.
- Bedell, Frederick. Airplane Characteristics: A Systematic Introduction for Flyer and Student for All Who Are Interested in Aviation. First. Ithaca, New York: Taylor and Company, 1918.
- Bryan, G. H. Stability in Aviation: An Introduction to Dynamical Stability as Applied to the Motions of Aeroplanes. London: Macmillan and Company, 1911.
- Chatley, Herbert. Principles and Design of Aëroplanes. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1911.
- Duchêne. Flight without Formulæ: Simple Discussions on the Mechanics of the Aeroplane. Translated by John H. Lederboer. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1918.
- ———. The Mechanics of the Aeroplane: A Study of the Principles of Flight. Translated by John H. Lederboer and T’ O’B Hubbard. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1916.
- Eiffel, G. The Resistance of the Air and Aviation: Experiments Conducted at the Champs-de-Mars Laboratory. Translated by Jerome C. Hunsaker. London: Constable & Company, 1913.
- Gill, N. J. The Flyer’s Guide: An Elementary Handbook for Aviators. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1917.
- Judge, Arthur W. The Design of Aeroplanes. Second. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1917.
- Kennedy, Rankin. The Principles of Aeroplane Construction. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1911.
- King, J. T., and N. W. Leslie. Aeroplane Construction and Assembly. Minneapolis, Minnesota: The William Hood Dunwoody Industrial Institute, 1918.
- Lilienthal, Otto. Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation. Translated by A. W. Isenthal. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1911.
- Lougheed, Victor. Aeroplane Designing for Amateurs. Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Company, 1912.
- Miessner, B. F. Radiodynamics: The Wireless Control of Torpedoes and Other Materials. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1916.
- Pomilio, Ottorino. Airplane Design and Construction. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1919.
- Rathbun, John B. Aeroplane Construction and Operation. Third. Chicago: Stanton and Van Vliet Company, 1919.
- Riach, M. A. S. Air-Screws: An Introduction to the Aerofoil Theory of Screw Propulsion. London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1918.
- Thurston, Albert P. Elementary Aeronautics: Or the Science and Practice of Aerial Machines. London: Whittaker & Company, 1911.
- Aerobatics
- Aeroplane Design
- Air Navigation, Notes & Examples
- Flying: Some Practical Experiences
- How an Aeroplane is Built
- Model Making
- Resistance of the Air
- The Aerial Propeller
Historical
- Abbot, Willis J. Aircraft and Submarines: The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present Day Uses of War’s Newest Weapons. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1918.
- Berry, W. H. Aircraft in War and Commerce. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918.
- Curtiss, Glenn H., and Augustus Post. The Curtiss Aviation Book. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912.
- Grahame-White, Claude, and Harry Harper. Air Power: Naval, Military, Commercial. London: Chapman & Hall, 1917.
- ———. The Aeroplane: Past, Present, and Future. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911.
- Middleton, Edgar C. Airfare of To-Day and of the Future. London: Constable and Company, 1917.
- Santos-Dumont, Alberto. My Airships: The Story of My Life. London: Grant Richards, 1904.
- Winchester, Clarence. Flying Men & Their Machines. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1916.
- Zahm, Albert Francis. Aërial Navigation: A Popular Treatise on the Growth of Air Craft and Aëronautical Meteorology. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1911.
- Aviation
- History of U.S. Military Aeronautics
- History of U.S. Naval Aeronautics
Motors
- Bacon, John B. F. Elements of Aviation Engines. San Diego: Paul Elder and Company, 1918.
- Burls, G. A. Aero Engines: With a General Introductory Account of the Theory of the Internal-Combustion Engine. Eleventh. London: Charles Griffin and Company, n.d.
- Chadwick, John C. Aviation Engines. New York City: Edwin N. Appleton, 1919.
- Clark, Carl H. Marine Gas Engines: Their Construction and Management. Second. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1919.
- Colvin, Fred H. Aircraft Mechanics Handbook. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1918.
- Hiscox, Gardner D., and Victor W. Pagé. Gas, Gasoline and Oil-Engines. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1918.
- Heldt, P. M. The Gasoline Automobile: Its Design and Construction. First. Vol. 3. Nyack, NY: P. M. Heldt, 1918.
- Hobbs, George W., and Ben G. Elliott. The Gasoline Automobile. Engineering Education. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1919.
- Judge, Arthur W. High Speed Internal Combustion Engines. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1918.
- Kean, Francis John. Aeronautical Engines: A Critical Survey of Current Practice with Special Reference to the Balancing of Inertia Forces. New York: Spon & Chamberlain, 1918.
- Kennedy, Rankin. The Principles of Aeroplane Construction. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1911.
- Kent, William, and Robert Thurston Kent. The Mechanical Engineers’ Pocket-Book: A Reference-Book of Rules, Tables, Data and Formulæ. Ninth. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1916.
- Kushlan, Max. The Gas Motor. Chicago: The Branch Publishing Company, 1918.
- Marks, Lionel S., ed. Mechanical Engineers’ Handbook. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1916.
- Maycock, W. Perren. A Small Book on Electric Motors. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1918.
- Pagé, Victor W. Aviation Engines: Design, Construction, Operation and Repair. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1918.
- ———. Gasoline and Kerosene Carburetors. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1919.
- ———. Storage Batteries Simplified: Operating Principles, Care and Industrial Applications. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1917.
- ———. The A-B-C of Aviation. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1918.
- ———. The Modern Gasoline Automobile: Its Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance. 1919th ed. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1919.
- Pollard, Harold. Aero Engines, Magnetos and Carburetors. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918.
- Rathbun, John B. Gas, Gasoline and Oil Engines. Chicago: Stanton and Van Vliet Company, 1919.
- Sterlin, F. W. Internal Combustion Engine Manual. Annapolis, Maryland: School of Marine Engineering, U.S. Naval Academy, 1916.
- Toepel, Michael E. Automotive Magneto Ignition: Its Principle and Application with Special Reference to Aviation Engines. Second. New York: Spon & Chamberlain, 1919.
- Whitman, Roger B. Gas-Engine Principles. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1912.
- Aero Engines
- Aeroplanes and Aero Engines
- Aviation Chart
- Aviation Motors
- Dyke's Auto and Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia
- Dyke's Motor Manual
- Electric Motors & Control Systems
- Gas Engine Handbook
- Gas Engine Troubles & Installation with Trouble Charts
- Gas Engines and Producers
- Gasoline Engines
- Practical Aviation
- Suplee's Mechanical Engineers' Reference Book
- The Gasoline Motor
Balloons-Dirigibles
- D’Orcy, Ladislas. D’Orcy’s Airship Manual: An International Register of Airships with a Compendium of the Airship’s Elementary Mechanics. New York: The Century Company, 1917.
- Hearne, R. P. Zeppelins and Super-Zeppelins. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1916.
- Hoernes, H. A Compendium of Aviation and Aerostation: Balloons, Dirigibles and Flying-Machines, 1911.
- Pagé, Victor W. The A-B-C of Aviation. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1918.
- Porter, J. Robertson. The Helicopter Flying-Machine. London: Aeronautics, 1911.
- Santos-Dumont, Alberto. My Airships: The Story of My Life. London: Grant Richards, 1904.
- Turner, Charles C. The Romance of Aeronautics: An Interesting Account of the Growth & Achievements of All Kinds of Aerial Craft. London: Seeley, Service & Company, 1912.
- Widmer, Emil J. Military Aviation Balloons. New York: D. Von Nostrand Company, 1918.
- Woodhouse, Henry. Textbook of Military Aeronautics. New York: The Century Company, 1918.
- ———. Textbook of Naval Aeronautics. New York: The Century Company, 1917.
- Zahm, Albert Francis. Aërial Navigation: A Popular Treatise on the Growth of Air Craft and Aëronautical Meteorology. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1911.
- Practical Aviation
- Production of Hydrogen
For Younger Readers
- Bartlett, Robert A., and Ralph T. Hale. Northward Ho! The Last Voyage of the Karluk. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1919.
- Collins, Francis A. The Boys’ Book of Model Aeroplanes. New York: The Century Company, 1910.
- ———. The Second Boys’ Book of Model Aeroplanes. New York: The Century Company, 1911.
- Darrow, Floyd L. The Boys’ Own Book of Great Inventions. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918.
- Fitzhugh, Percy Keese. Tom Slade with the Flying Corps: A Campfire Tale. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1919.
- Morgan, A. P. Model Flying Machines: How to Build and Fly Them. Newark, NJ: Cole & Morgan, 1913.
- Verrill, A. Hyatt. Harper’s Aircraft Book: Why Aeroplanes Fly, How to Make Models, and All About Aircraft, Little and Big. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1913.
- ———. Harper’s Gasoline Engine Book: How the Engine Is Made, How to Use It at Home, in Boats and Vehicles, and Elsewhere, and How to Keep It in Order. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1914.
- ———. Harper’s Wireless Book: How to Use Wireless Electricity in Telegraphing, Telephoning, and the Transmission of Power. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1913.
- Aeroplanes for Boys
- How to Build a Scout Monoplane
- How to Build a Twenty-Foot Glider
- Model Making
Warfare
- A Pilot. War Flying. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917.
- André, C. H. A. Above the Battles. Translated by Wilson. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1919.
- Bishop, William A. Winged Warfare. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918.
- Bordeaux, Henry. Georges Guynemer: Knight of the Air. Translated by Louise Morgan Sill. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1918.
- Bott, Alan. Cavalry of the Clouds. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1918.
- Bower, B. M. Skyrider. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1918.
- ———. The Thunder Bird. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1919.
- Cable, Boyd. Air Men O’ War. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1919.
- Clouston, J. Storer. The Man from the Clouds. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1919.
- Crowe, James Richard. Pat Crowe, Aviator: Skylark Views and Letters from France, Including the Story of “Jacquelin.” Edited by W. B. Chase. New York: Nicholas L. Brown, 1919.
- Farré, Henry. Sky Fighters of France: Aerial Warfare, 1914-1918. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919.
- “Flight.” The Flying Yankee. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1918.
- Hall, Bert. “En l’Air”: Three Years on and Above Three Fronts. New York, NY: The New Library, 1918.
- Hall, James Norman. High Adventure: A Narrative of Air Fighting in France. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918.
- McConnell, James R. Flying for France: With the American Escadrille at Verdun. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1918.
- McCudden, James Thomas Byford. Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps. London: The “Aeroplane” & General Publishing Company, n.d.
- Middleton, Edgar. Glorius Exploits of the Air. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1918.
- Molter, Bennett A. Knights of the Air. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1918.
- Naudaud, Marcel. Birds of a Feather. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1919.
- ———. The Flying Poilu: A Story of Aerial Warfare. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918.
- Nordhoff, Charles Bernard. The Fledgling. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919.
- Pulitzer, Ralph. Over the Front in an Aeroplane and Scenes Inside the French and Flemish Trenches. New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1915.
- Reece, Robert H. Night Bombing with the Bedouins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919.
- Rickenbacker, Edward V. Fighting the Flying Circus. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.
- Roberts, E. M. A Flying Fighter: An American Above the Lines in France. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1918.
- Rosher, Harold. With the Flying Squadron. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916.
- Sweester, Arthur. The American Air Service: A Record of Its Problems, Its Difficulties, Its Failures, and Its Final Achievements. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1919.
- Wallace, Edgar. Tam O’ the Scoots. New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1919.
- Wood, Eric. Thrilling Deeds of British Airmen. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, n.d.
Wireless
- Bucher, Elmer E. Practical Wireless Telegraphy: A Complete Text Book for Students of Radio Communication. Revised. New York: Wireless Press, 1918.
- Croft, Terrell. Practical Electricity. First. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1917.
- Goldsmith, Alfred N. Radio Telephony. New York: The Wireless Press, 1918.
- Lee, John. Telegraph Practice: A Study of Comparative Method. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1917.
- Morgan, Alfred P. Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony Simply Explained: A Practical Treatise. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1916.
- Aviator's Pocket Signal Chart Morse Code
- Radio Communication
- Swoope's Practical Electricity
Miscellaneous
- Andrews, Lincoln C., and Leonard Wood. Fundamentals of Military Service. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1917.
- Bartlett, Robert A., and Ralph T. Hale. Northward Ho! The Last Voyage of the Karluk. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1919.
- Fuller, Charles E., and William A. Johnston. Applied Mechanics. First. Vol. 2. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1919.
- Grahame-White, Claude, and Harry Harper. Our First Airways: Their Organization, Equipment, and Finance. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, n.d.
- McAdie, Alexander. The Principles of Aërography. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1917.
- Neilson, Robert M. Aeroplane Patents. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1910.
- Poor, Charles Lane. Simplified Navigation for Ships and Aircraft: A Text Book Based Upon the Saint Hilaire Method. New York: The Century Company, 1918.
- Wade, W. L., ed. The Flying Book. 1918 ed. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1918.
- Willcox, Cornélis de Witt. War French. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917.
- Woodhouse, Henry. Aircraft of All Nations. New York: C. S. Hammond & Company, 1917.
- Aircraft Year Book
- All the World's Aircraft
- Descriptive Meteorology
- Dictionary of Aviation in French and English

Assorted Books

Collins, A. Frederick. How to Fly. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1918.
Hewlett, Maurice. Our Flying Men, n.d.
Turner, Charles C. The Marvels of Aviation: Describing in Non-Technical Language the Beginnings, Growth & Achievements of All Kinds of Aircraft. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1917.
Woodhouse, Henry. Textbook of Applied Aeronautic Engineering. New York: The Century Company, 1920.
———, ed. The Aero Blue Book and Directory of Aeronautic Organizations. New York: The Century Company, 1919.

JohnB wrote:I appreciate your considerable efforts.

By the way, if anyone is interested in the amount of time it takes to compile these posts, according to my browser history this one took about 7 hours over two days. For what it's worth, the majority of the effort is finding the books online, entering the bibliographic data in Zotero, and then adding the BBCode formatting.

Sun Jul 31, 2022 7:35 pm

As another follow up on a previous post, the cover of the January-June 1943 semi-annual index of the Technical Data Digest includes a selection of journals relevant to aviation. They are:

Aero Digest
Aircraft Engineering
Aircraft Production
American Machinst
Army Ordnance
Automotive and Aviation Industries
Aviation
Dyestuff Reporter
Electrical Engineering
Electronics
Engineering News-Record
Flight
India Rubber World
Instruments
Journal of Applied Physics
Journal of Aviation Medicine
Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences
Machine Design
Mechanical Engineering
Metal Treatment
Modern Plastics
Paint Oil and Chemical Review
Product Engineering
SAE Journal
Textile Monthly
Textile Research
The Aeroplane
The Engineer
The Iron Age
The Metal Industry
Welding
Wireless Engineer

(Source: Technical Data Digest Index, vol. 9 (Dayton, Ohio: Technical Data Library, Engineering Division, Materiel Command, Wright Field, 1943), front cover.)

In addition, a few other previously unmentioned periodicals:

Aerosphere[1]
Western Industry[2]

Also, I came across a NACA document titled "List of Reports with Prices" that motivated me to collate all of the various aviation bibliographies from previous posts (1, 2, 3) into a single "bibliography of bibliographies":

Bibliographies

Single Issue
- A Bibliography of Adult Aerospace Books and Materials. Washington, D.C.: National Aviation Education Council, 1961.
- A Selected and Annotated Bibliography of Recent Air Age Education Textbooks. Office of Aviation Training, Civil Aeronautics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1947.
- Aeronautical and Space Serial Publications: A World List. Washington: Science and Technology Division, Reference Department, Library of Congress, 1962.
- “Aeronautical Engineering.” In Selected Bibliography of Engineering Subjects. Engineer’s Council for Professional Development, n.d.
- Alphabetical List of Aeronautical Bibliographies with Subject Contents. New York City: Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1941.
- Brockett, Paul. Bibliography of Aeronautics. Vol. 55. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. City of Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1910.
- Books for Aircraft Mechanics. Division of Aeronautics, Library of Congress, 1944.
- Hallion, Richard P. The Literature of Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Air Power. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1984.
- Miller, Samuel Duncan. An Aerospace Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1978.
- Winklepleck, Helen. Bibliography of Rotary Wing Aircraft. Ohio: Technical Information Branch, Technical Data Laboratory, Engineering Division, Wright Field, n.d.
- Aviation Education Source Book[3]
- Bibliography of Aviation Education Materials[4]
Reoccurring

A couple observations:

The name of the last entry reminds me of an article I read about a woman named Sarah B. Clark who was responsible for the creation of a collection of files from Wright Field that bears her name.
As to why there were so many government produced bibliographies during World War II, it is worth remembering that, as mentioned in a previous post, nearly every base and company maintained libraries.
Quite ironically, I have never had so many questions on how to format of bibliographic information than when I was working on these entries.
One final list of documents is the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, which went by the title United States Government Publications Monthly Catalog during World War II.

Tue Oct 11, 2022 5:24 pm

While skimming through the aviation magazines that AirCorps Library recently uploaded, I came across a few previously-unbeknownst-to-me periodicals.

First, while Aviation Week has come to be the dominant aviation periodical everyone knows today, back during World War II it appears Aero Digest was working on it's own family of publications. In addition to the fact that its full title was Aero Digest including Aviation Engineering for a while, according to an advertisement on page 102 of the October 1943 issue the Aeronautical Digest Publishing Corporation was also behind Air Pilot and Technician and Revista Aérea. Both offer interesting historical insights. The former is described in another advertisement on page 199 of the November 1943 issue as "dedicated to the development of [the] post-war market". With the benefit of hindsight it seems the magazine was just one more casualty of the overly rosy view that would lead to the late 1940s aircraft market crash. Revista Aérea, on the other hand was a Latin American magazine that was founded in 1937 and still exists today. (Meanwhile, it's technical reference files are in the National Air and Space Museum.) What makes it intriguing, however, is when it's existence is noted alongside other Spanish language publications of the time mentioned in previous posts (1, 2). It points to an emerging aviation market in the southwestern hemisphere that grew up with organizations like the Aztec Eagles and would eventually lead to warbird recoveries of the type profiled in books like So I Bought an Air Force. (For more information on this subject, check out the Latin American Aviation Historical Society or works Dan Hagedorn.)

Another periodical with a collection on AirCorps Library - albeit very limited - is American Aviation. It was mentioned only briefly in a previous post, but the available entries reveal a bit more information. The magazine billed itself as "The Independent Voice of American Aeronautics" - which I take to be a reference to dominating position of Aero Digest and Aviation at the time. It was published bimonthly and counted the publications American Aviation Daily (published six days a week), American Aviation Directory (biannual), and Universal Airline Schedules (monthly) under its umbrella.

Finally, although not in AirCorps Library's collection, is Air Transportation. Called by this name from its founding in 1942 to 1968, it would also be known as Air Cargo in 1969, Cargo Airlift from 1969 to 1976, Air Cargo again until 1982, and finally its present name: Air Cargo World. The driving force behind the magazine was apparently a man named Richard Malkin, who was with the periodical for 60 or more years from its start until at least 2002.[1]

Tue Oct 11, 2022 5:58 pm

As a kid, my dad would bring home Aviation Week for me, I really enjoyed it and when I was active duty, and for awhile after that, I subscribed (they have a lower rate for military officers).

He also brought home a couple of issues of American Aviation in the late '60s. I liked those but rarely saw them.
I figured they were an alternative to AV Week.

Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:48 pm

Unfortunately, the database update struck again. It deleted one of the previous posts - something I discovered when I went to go add to it. Again, not only was it was archived, but I kept a copy, so I was able to restore it:

Noha307 wrote:Assen Jordanoff has been mentioned a few times in previous posts (1, 2, 3), but this was only piecemeal. A biographical paper I recently came across with a bibliography of his books at the end provided the motivation to list them all in one place:

Books by Assen Jordanoff
Jordanoff, Assen. Through the Overcast: The Weather and the Art of Instrument Flying. Revised. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1943.
———. Your Wings. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1936.
Dials and Flight
Flying and How to Do It!
Jordanoff's Illustrated Aviation Dictionary
Men and Wings
Power and Flight
Safety in Flight
The Man Behind Flight: A Ground Course for Aviation Mechanics and Airmen

(Source: Paperzz)
This is similar to what was done with books by P. V. H. Weems, Charles A. Zweng, E. Molloy, Bert A. Shields, Burr W. Leyson, Hap Arnold and Claude Grahame-White.

One of the original motivations for this thread was to help understand the popular consciousness of the times by discovering what the public was reading at the time. Therefore, although many of them appear to not be aviation related, a series of images of the Grumman company library was particularly interesting. The creation of this library was almost certainly influenced by the 1940 "Victory Book Campaign" (which would later go on to inspire the very popular Armed Services Editions). For example, a picture taken in 1941 at the Service Club Library in Camp Wheeler, Georgia shows a nearly identical scene - right down to the style of the wooden bookshelves! The images themselves (3001, 3062, 3304, 3348) are spread out over multiple posts (1, 2) in the Grumman aircraft thread. (There's also a picture of the Plant 25 engineering library in another post.)

EDIT (22-10-24): Two quick notes on the subject of base libraries. First, as wendovertom mentioned in a post in the Aviation Museum Libraries thread, the Historic Wendover Airfield has a very small portion of it's original collection. (How neat is that?) Second, there was a specific material class for library resources. According to page 9 of Section 0002 of the Classification Index of Naval Aeronautical Materials, books, maps, periodicals and similar documents are Class 35 materials.

EDIT (22-12-09): I recently came across this picture in a book entitled ABC of the RAF on AirCorps Library:

ABC of the RAF wrote:A satisfying and progressive career is assured to these lucky youngsters serving an
apprenticeship in the Royal Air Force. Should they desire to study any appropriate
subject they can do so in the reading room of this well-stocked library.

(Source: AirCorps Library)

Sun Dec 25, 2022 11:09 pm

Aero Digest Books (August 1943)

Technical and Engineering
- Niles, Alfred S., and Joseph S. Newell. Airplane Structures. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1929.
- Basic Mathematics
Production
- Dickinson, Thomas A. Aircraft Construction Handbook. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1943.
- Starr, Richard B., ed. Foremanship Training. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1943.
For Flight Personnel
- Favill, John. Primer of Celestial Navigation. New York: Cornell Maritime Press, 1940.
- Pagé, Victor W. ABC of Aviation. Elementary. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1928.
- The War Plane and How It Works
- Manual for Instruction in Military Maps and Aerial Photography
Miscellaneous
- Lamb, Scott G. Air Navigation for Beginners: A Ground School Primer for the Aerial Navigator. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1942.
- Michaels, Ralph. From Bird Cage to Battle Plane: The History of the R.A.F. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1943.
- Mingos, Howard, ed. The Aircraft Year Book for 1943. Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America, 1943.
- Spitz, Armand N. A Start in Meteorology: An Introduction to the Science of the Weather. Second. New York: The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company, 1943.
- Wordell, M. T., and E. N. Seiler. “Wildcats” Over Casablanca. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1943.
- Aircraft Engine Trouble Shooting Chart
- Flying Fortress: The Story of the Boeing Bomber
- Love at First Flight
- Malta Story
- Navigation
- Rand McNally Air-Age Map
- Skymaster
- Spin In, Dumbwhacks
- There's Something in the Air
- War Planes of All Nations

(Source: Aero Digest)

Aero Digest Books (September 1943)

Technical and Engineering
- Muncheryan, H. M. Industrial Radiology and Related Phenomena. First. Huntington Park, California: Aircraft X-Ray Laboratories, 1943.
- Teichmann, Frederick K. Airplane Design Manual. New York: Pitman Publishing Company, 1939.
- Thrasher, Howard. Aircraft Lofting and Template Layout with Descriptive Geometry. San Francisco, California: Aviation Press, 1942.
For Students
- Hearley, J. G. Modern Trigonometry. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1942.
- Before You Fly
- Elements of Mechanical Vibration
For Flight Personnel
- Newsom, C. V., and Harold D. Larsen. Basic Mathematics for Pilots and Flight Crews. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1943.
- Air Navigation
Ground Personnel
- Zweng, Charles A. Ground Instructor: Covering “General Aeronautics.” Bloomington, Illinois: McKnight & McKnight, 1941.
- Aircraft Descriptive Geometry
- Mechanical Vibrations
Miscellaneous
- Greenlaw, Olga S. The Lady and the Tigers. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1943.
- Aircraft & Engine Mechanics Manual
- Combat Aviation
- Flying Health
- Highway to Tokyo
- Malta Spitfire
- Punch In, Susie
- The Navy Has Wings

(Source: Aero Digest)

Sun Nov 12, 2023 5:33 pm

While working on a post in another thread, I came across something that eventually led me to discover of selection of vintage aviation books digitized by the Library of Congress. (Note that a number of these books have already been included in previous posts.) Given that the library will only digitize public domain books and presumably don't have the time to research the copyright status of more recent publications, they all date from no later than the early 1920s. Also, it is worth noting that a surprising portion of the books are compilations of letters from pilots who did not survive. So, far from being a recent invention, this type of "memoir" was being practiced as early as World War I:

Aviation Books from the Library of Congress

Biddle, Charles J. The Way of the Eagle. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1919.
Bingham, Hiram. An Explorer in the Air Service. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1920.
Bishop, William A. Winged Warfare. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918.
Bölcke, Oswald. An Aviator’s Field Book. Translated by Robert Reynold Hirsch. New York: National Military Publishing Company, 1917.
Bott, Alan. The Flying Ace. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1917.
Cable, Boyd. Air Men O’ War. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1919.
Carlo, Camillo de. La Spia Volante: Ricordi Delle Gesta D’Oltrepiave. New York: Brentano’s, 1919.
Chapman, Victor, and John Jay Chapman. Victor Chapman’s Letters from France. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917.
Edmonds, C. H. K. Aerial Cooperation with the Navy. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922.
Farré, Henry. Sky Fighters of France: Aerial Warfare, 1914-1918. Translated by Catharine Rush. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919.
Hall, James Norman. High Adventure: A Narrative of Air Fighting in France. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918.
Haslett, Elmer. Luck on the Wing: Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1920.
Mortane, Jacques. Guynemer: The Ace of Aces. Translated by Clifton Harby Levy. New York: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1918.
Richthofen, Manfred Freiherr von. The Red Battle Flyer. Translated by T. Ellis Barker. New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, 1918.
Rosher, Harold. With the Flying Squadron. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916.
Walcott, Stuart. Above the French Lines: Letters of Stuart Walcott, American Aviator: July 4, 1917, to December 8, 1917. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1918.
———. The Life Story of an American Airman in France. National Geographic Magazine, 1918.
War Flying. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917.
Wellman, William A. Go, Get ’Em! Boston: The Page Company, 1918.
Zeppeline Über England: Ein Tagebuch. New York: Deutschland Library Company, 1917.

Fri Feb 16, 2024 2:25 pm

Similar to the Instrument Flying Manuals mentioned in a previous post, the military published a series of Pilot Training Manuals:

Pilot Training Manuals

Unknown - Instructor's Supplement to Pilot Training Manual for the Flying Fortress B-17
Unknown - Instructor's Supplement to Airplane Commander's Training Manual for the Superfortress B-29[1]
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the Invader A-26
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the Flying Fortress B-17
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the Liberator B-24[2]
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the Mitchell Bomber B-25
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the B-26
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the C-47[3]
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the Lightning P-38[4]
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the P-40
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the Mustang P-51
Unknown - Pilot Training Manual for the P-61 Black Widow
AAF Manual 50-1 - Pilot Training Manual for the Mitchell Bomber B-25
AAF Manual 50-5 - Pilot Training Manual for the Thunderbolt P-47
AAF Manual 50-9 - The B-29: Airplane Commander Training Manual for the Superfortress
AAF Manual 50-11 - Pilot Training Manual for the B-25[5]
AAF Manual 50-12 - Pilot Training Manual for the Liberator B-24
AAF Manual 50-13 - Pilot Training Manual for the Flying Fortress B-17
AAF Manual 50-14 - Pilot Training Manual for the Skymaster C-54
AAF Manual 50-16 - Pilot Training Manual for the Commando C-46
AAF Manual 50-17 - Pilot Training Manual for the CG-4A Glider[6]
AAF Manual 50-18 - Pilot Training Manual for the L-5[7]
AAF Manual 51-126-1 - Pilot Training Manual for the Invader A-26
AAF Manual 51-126-6 - Pilot's and Flight Engineers' Training Manual for the Superfortress B-29
AAF Manual 51-126-7 - Airplane Commander Training Manual for the B-32 Dominator[8]
AAF Manual 51-127-1 - Pilot Training Manual for the Lightning P-38
AAF Manual 51-127-4 - Pilot Training Manual for the Thunderbolt P-47N
AAF Manual 51-127-5 - Pilot Training Manual for the Mustang P-51
AAF Manual 51-129-2 - Pilot Training Manual for the Skytrain C-47
AAF Manual 51-129-3 - Pilot Training Manual for the Skymaster C-54

A few notes:

They tend to be distinctive as a result of their black + single color covers.
They apparently went through a few revisions. The earliest editions, from 1944, lack an AAF Manual number. In January 1945, they had received numbers in the "50" set and by August/September 1945 they were in the "51" range.
Also similar to the Instrument Flying Manuals, there were Instructors' Supplements. They seem to be rather rare - so far the only one that has turned up is for the B-17.
Except for the B-32, all of the titles use the backwards format of nickname first and designation second.
There are a few unique cases in names:
- Aside from the CG-4A, the B-25 manual is the only one to name its role ("bomber").
- The P-40 manual is the only one to lack a nickname (presumably because of the multiple nicknames for non-American versions).
- The B-32 manual is for the "airplane commander" instead of the pilot. The later B-29 manual does the same, except instead it adds the flight engineer.
- The P-47N manual is the only one to list a variant. This matches with the later P-51 manuals as the first version describes both the razorback and bubble canopy versions, but the later one only covers the "D" and K" variants.
- The earlier B-29 manual is wholly different in format.
Interestingly, one of the things that was cut when the P-51 manual was updated was a two-page fictional narrative about a Native American taming a wild Mustang horse. (The updated version retains a single paragraph mentioning the background of the nickname.) This is interesting in light of the fact that a newspaper article established North American had a special connection with the "Texan" nickname for the T-6 and heavily used the same sort of motifs for its company-published pilot's handbook. Perhaps they were a bit more connected to symbolism than other manufacturers?

There were also a series "information files" that did much the same thing, but focused on the crew role rather than the airplane:

Information Files

A note:

There are also a pair of gunner's information files - Air Forces Manual No. 20 and GEJ-1613 - that are from a different series.

EDIT (24-02-19): Added Instructor's Supplement to Airplane Commander's Training Manual for the Superfortress B-29 entry.
EDIT (24-02-23): Added Pilot Training Manual for the B-26 entry with link, Pilot Training Manual for the C-47 entry with reference, AAF Manual 50-18 entry with link and link to AAF Manual 51-126-6.
EDIT (24-02-25): Apparently, a Pilot Training Manual for the BT-13 exists, as AirCorps Library has a document with a cover page for it. Unfortunately, the document in question is actually the Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions with an incorrect cover.
EDIT (24-04-04): Apparently, if the cover on a copy on AirCorps Library is to be believed, there is a different edition of the P-40 Pilot Training Manual that was issued in 1943. It doesn't have a T.O. number and has the same number of pages as the undated version, so it's not clear what the differences are.

Last edited by Noha307 on Thu Apr 04, 2024 5:47 pm, edited 7 times in total.

Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:24 pm

Another point about wartime pilot handbooks, many had a brief introduction by General Arnold, complete with a flattering drawing portrait.
It is included in my original P-40 and P-47 manuals. And I have seen it in P-51 reprints.
Not surprisingly, it is not in my (joint USAF/USN) 1957 edition of the C-47 handbook.

I can't imagine a modern day Air Force Chief of Staff being that popular to warrant something like that today.

Also, the P-40 book has a brief history of the type.
While it defensively notes that while it is true that no more examples of the type are being sent for overseas combat, the aircraft is still a capable machine and is the "...most high performance ship that you've (he Warhawk student pilot) have ever flown."
In other words, it is worthy of respect.

Last edited by JohnB on Sat Jul 13, 2024 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals

Re: Vintage Aviation Books and Periodicals