F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

Think of the First World War and then think of an aircraft. What springs to mind will probably be the Sopwith Camel. The single-seat Camel was one of the most successful RNAS/RFC/RAF ‘scouts’ (the period term for a fighter) of the First World War. Jarrod Cotter has been given rare access to the Shuttleworth Collection’s Sopwith Camel replica as well as Camel new-builds in France and New Zealand. The manual includes rare and stunning colour photography of rebuilding, restoring, and flying this classic WW1 fighter.

Jarrod Cotter is a freelance aviation author and former editor of Aeroplane Monthly magazine. He is co-author of the Haynes Avro Lancaster Manual, author of the Haynes P-51 Mustang Manual and Bristol Blenheim Manuals. He lives in Lincolnshire.

Reviews

I bought this as a companion piece to the Haynes ‘Great War Tank’.
Both present a history of their respective subject using archive and contemporary photographs, associated artifacts, diary entries, etc. However, the primary difference between both books – in my opinion – is how the physical details of each vehicle are presented. Whereas the Great War Tank shows the interior of the Tank (crew compartment, procedure for starting the engine, operating armaments, etc.) from an actual (museum) example, the Camel is done by following a vehicle being built from scratch (machining the timber framework, sourcing brass instruments, cables and wiring), as that’s exactly what the guy in the book has done to create a working, flying aircraft.
The level of detail is intricate enough for the most fanatical of fine scale modelers (not that the Great War Tank manual is any slouch), but this is far, far more informative. I don’t know whether it’s easier to build a replica Sopwith than a replica MkIV, but this is a great book.

Concise, factual and easy to read. The reader isn’t blinded by complicated engineering terms and weapon acronyms. Photo quality is excellent making this one of the better Haynes manuals. One minus, the first part of the book concerns itself with the formation of the RAF and a selection of luminaries from that period, maybe more anecdotes or stories from pilots who flew the Camel would have fitted better? That’s my personal view anyway…

Not what I expected, but an excellent diary of trying to build a historic plane. The history of aviation was ok but took up valuable book space as most people with interest in the Camel would have a good background in aviation already. This would have allowed more time on maintaining and repairing the craft. Overall, I love it.