RAF engine documents

[MiTasol]

I am now scanning some of my RAF engine manuals and rather than starting a new thread for each will post them here.

Others are welcome to post to this thread as well

I am starting with AP 1500 Vol I for the de Havilland Gipsy Major series engines. This is an RAAF print and includes an RAAF supplement at the rear. It also contains a memo on how to build an engine stand after the rear cover.

Next will be AP 4038B&C Vol I RR Derwent and then a lot of Cheetah manuals.

 

[MiTasol]

AP 4038B&C Vol I RR Derwent was a nice easy one. Why they made the operating limitations as foldouts is beyond me

 

[MiTasol]

And now the first Cheetah manual - the only easy one as it is almost unused and the pages are almost all the same size.

Most of the others are like this and/or well used. The next couple have four page sizes in the first ten pages. !@#$%^&* pain in the whatsit as I cannot feed it through the document feeder

 

[SaparotRob]

It's nice seeing documents such as these now widely preserved.

 

[MiTasol]

Decided to put off the two mongrel manuals and do a couple of easy ones first. RAAF Cheetah Orders (VERY poor quality) and one of three Vols I have for the Cheetah.

The Cheetah Orders are NOT OCR'd.

The Vol I cover is a composite from the two in loose leaf binders and will be used on both. The oldest is a bound book.

 

[MiTasol]

And here is the same manual with Amendment List 12 incorporated. Fortunately only a small number of pages are different so I used the AL8 file and revised that by swapping in the revised pages. My copy of the AL12 manual is what is politely called somewhat worse for wear. Of the revised pages only page 19 and the last two pages show the condition of much of the manual. For those who want to know what the changes were these are the pages - the prefix is the section number with 44 being sec 4 chap 4

Next is the original December 37 Cheetah IX manual, a hard cover bound book with 267 pages.

 

[MiTasol]

Here is the Vol 1 for the Cheetah IX, amendment 1 dated Dec 37. This is a very fragile hard bound book. A lot of the pages have creases on them in the stitching area and I have removed the worst of the marks but I am unwell and it affecting my eyesight so it is not as clean as I would like. 267 numbered pages gives it 342 total pages including covers

 

[MiTasol]

EDIT - The RAF came into existence on April 1 1918 so that puts a date of sorts to this manual. A search online found several sections that appear to have the same text and diagrams but with different authors/publishers. I could not find any of the probable missing sections but did find my copy has sections that at least one other is lacking.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A WW1 era manual.

Those into tech will be interested in some of the Rotary engine connecting rods that predate the master and articulating rods used on most radials.

Also of interest some of the inline V engines were using the master and articulating rod system.

 

[MiTasol]

Another ww2 manual. This was a really crappy photocopy and required a lot of manual processing so I only did it until I got frustrated then went and did something easy for a while.

It is far from perfect but it will have to do

EDIT - two chapters from originals in the back of another manual.

 

[Vic P]

You did a great job cleaning this document up. Looks really good!

 

[MiTasol]

It's nice seeing documents such as these now widely preserved.

Thanks Rob

Far too much of this information is getting destroyed by various means. Many libraries are pulping them because no one asked to see them for too long.

Other collectors have died and their children or the executors of their wills have just sent the lot to the dump. Mine were willed to a younger friend but he is now very ill and it is very very probable that I will outlast him by many years.

The only way to preserve the information is for me to join the many many others on this forum who have collections and who have posted, and continued to post, their manuals.

 

[MiTasol]

RAF Gipsy I manual. It is missing a lot of pages but there is another copy in a library nearby. I have requested it via Inter Library Loan and will scan and the missing pages and update this IF it arrives.. There is also a later version, 1938 print with AL2 incorporated, in a second library but they are not part of the ILL system.

 

[MiTasol]

I keep putting the next two Cheetah manuals off as there are four different page sizes in the one manual and the two small pages are too small to feed through the document feeder. Then each size has to be processed before merging into the file.

Page sizes are

32.3 x 20.2 cm (13 x 8 inches)
9.5 x 22.25 cm (3.75 x 8.75 inches)
15.1 x 12.2 cm (6 x 4.8 inches)
15.1 x 24.2 cm (6 x 9.6 inches)
​

These pages were in the identical binders to the RAF binders on the vol 1 but the front covers were blank so I also had to fake up a front cover label - which may or may not be similar to the genuine labels. I suspect that there was one Vol II cover for all sub-models with tab dividers to separate the sub-models.

 

[MiTasol]

Another Gipsy manual - incomplete, just part 3.
Unfortunately this is all I have of it.
The white spots are library stamps.
Next will be a dH publication on the Gipsy Major 10 series engines in the dH documents thread.

 

[MiTasol]

Post #9 edited to add two chapters.

 

[MiTasol]

Another WW I document

 

[MiTasol]

I must have been suffering from old timers disease earlier today as I posted the Napier Lion engine to a new thread.

Here it is where I should have put it to start with,

I have had this one for some time but all the pages in the back have been cut out. Now I have found there are several other copies in existence and I am trying to get the missing pages from one of those sources and will try other sources if necessary. I will add those pages when I get them - maybe days, maybe months.

OCRing caused the two inside cover pages to go funny peculiar, I do not know why.

 

[MiTasol]

Another manual with all the folded pages cut or torn out.

Again I am trying to get the missing pages to complete it.

EDIT Now complete

 

[MiTasol]

Went on line and found Gobble scans of both the Lion and Jaguar manuals and found that their scanner operators were too lazy to unfold the folded pages.
!@#$%^&*, !@#$%^& and double @#$%^&.

 

[MiTasol]

The library that has the Panther manual pages I need for completing that manual I have posted above has replied and will send me 600 dpi scans of the six pages today but there is one problem. The Australian Copyright Act - 2019 allows them to provide copies only if I sign a declaration that comes direct from the Act.

The pages I want have been out of copyright since 1958 but the act has no provision for libraries to provide copyright free copies of material that is out of copyright.

The same will apply to any other missing pages sourced in Australia. I am applying for an exemption but who knows. It will probably fail because there is no provision in the act for any appeals on any grounds.

Meantime I am going to see if I can get the same pages from the UK or elsewhere.