Question: Royal Aircraft Factory

[Bughunter]

There are two books of the same author Hare.

"The Royal Aircraft Factory"


"Aeroplanes of the Royal Aircraft Factory"


Is that a different edition of the same book?
Which one is worth to bye, or are the Windsock Datafiles are enough as reference?

Cheers,
Frank

[cduckworth]

I only own the top book; it’s a history of the factory, designers and aircraft designed.  For the modeler the DF are a better reference with numerous images and the general arrangement drawings.

[macsporran]

I used to have both - the top one is a typical Putnam edition - a well researched history type-by-type of RAF designs with lots of text, some photographs and some tiny 3-view drawings, primarily aimed at the aviation historian rather than the modeller.
The lower one is a typical Crowood coffee-table volume, with lots of pictures but rather more sketchy text, probably of more interest to the casual reader rather than the specialist.
The Datafiles, Air-Britain SE5 File and some individual monographs are better for the modeller as opposed to the book collector in my opinion.
Sandy.

[Bughunter]

Thank you very much for your explanations!

I used to have both - the top one is a typical Putnam edition - a well researched history type-by-type of RAF designs

As I own many Datafiles, then this one is may be a good addition to give some background information and the evolution of the types.

Cheers,
Frank

[Bughunter]

By the way, there seems to be a new third one, released this year?


It has a new ISBN, so I do not know, if this one is a new edition of the Putnam book or a complete new one.

Cheers,
Frank