Spitfire Technical book, which one(s)?

[bada]

Well, the title says it all.
There are thousends of Spit books, so spending money on something that has already been said and told thousend of times(with the same errors) doesn't interest me. Already have dozens of them, but i'm still hungry for the one that would give me the "Wauw-wtf" effect.
What Spitfire TECHNICAL book(s) would you reccomend?
i'm specially interested in in 41-43 so Mk-II/Mk-V/Mk-IX/Mk-XII.
Thank you.

 

[Crimea_River]

Mk XII was Griffon engined.

I assume you have the Morgan and Shacklady Bible. Spitfire: The History by Eric B. Morgan; Edward Shacklady: Near Fine Hardcover (2000) Fifth Impression | Harry E Bagley Books

 

[bada]

Thanks, this one is popuing up a lot when talking about Spit books.
Saw an 1988 and a 2000 edition, is there a lot of corrections in the new one , or is it a reprint? The price difference between the 2 editions is outrageous.

 

[Boom]

Thanks, this one is popuing up a lot when talking about Spit books.
Saw an 1988 and a 2000 edition, is there a lot of corrections in the new one , or is it a reprint? The price difference between the 2 editions is outrageous.

Check AddAll used books. Far more reasonable prices there. And books are always very good condition, unless otherwise stated.

 

[mad_max]

Maybe some of this will be interesting to you and it's FREE Stuff I've collected over 3+ decades being involved in WW2 game development. It's in my google drive, use the links.

Spitfire - Google Drive - all spitfire papers

British - Google Drive - some Spit papers

Spitfire - Google Drive - some papers here


View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11uhjrbI4N-j_9_G5VAKa-9bUkhSj2gUR/view?usp=share_link. - Rolls-Royce engine data sheets


View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14KjrFhUMqeivCeAIiCozHgl-69kW-7_w/view?usp=share_link. - could be something in this book. it's a decent one in my eyes - Flying to the Limits - the test flying many aircraft

Enjoy!

 

[Engineman]

Thanks, this one is popuing up a lot when talking about Spit books.
Saw an 1988 and a 2000 edition, is there a lot of corrections in the new one , or is it a reprint? The price difference between the 2 editions is outrageous.

I just bought a used copy of the 1987 first edition for £14 inc postage. It is very good value and worth getting. Later, if you find the updated edition at a good price, you might still buy it and not have paid the silly prices.
My only point so far about the "Spitfire, the history" book is that there is relatively little about the Merlin and Griffon engines. You need the RRHT Merlin books, Lumsdens "British piston aero engines and their aircraft" and Calum Douglas' "The Secret Horsepower Race" to cover some of the detail about the engine development.

Cheers

Eng

 

[ThomasP]

If you do not already have it, you might like "The Spitfire V Manual", part of the RAF Museum Series, published by Greenhill Books and/or Stackpole Books. It is a technically oriented book - basically a copy of the Pilot's Notes plus a bunch of stuff from the maintenance manual. It includes a fair number of original diagrams of the different systems and structure, plus a Modification list that covers a fair number of the Mods. applied to the Mk I thru Mk V. Reasonably priced and available used through booksellers.

If you have a copy of AP 1565E (digital available here "AP 1565 Spitfire maintenance documents", courtesy of MiTasol) then you already have 80-90% of the info in the RAF Museum Series book.

AP 1565J & L for the Spitfire Mk IX & XVI (digital available here "AP 1565 Spitfire maintenance documents", also courtesy of MiTasol) is another good source of some info, although it is not extensive like the Mk V manual.

 

[bada]

Thanks Guys!

A lot of good info provided in a short term here
M mad_max : downloaded all your stuff, a fast check shown some stuff i hadn't in my possession, great!
Boom: will check this site out, thanks.
E Engineman : good to know, will start with the first edition, to be sure my wallet doesn't start to hate me.
@ThomasP : i think i got all spit manuals that are on this forum...i think...but in any case, will download the one from MiTasol, just in case

 

[Engineman]

I just bought a used copy of the 1987 first edition for £14 inc postage. It is very good value and worth getting. Later, if you find the updated edition at a good price, you might still buy it and not have paid the silly prices.
My only point so far about the "Spitfire, the history" book is that there is relatively little about the Merlin and Griffon engines. You need the RRHT Merlin books, Lumsdens "British piston aero engines and their aircraft" and Calum Douglas' "The Secret Horsepower Race" to cover some of the detail about the engine development.

Cheers

Eng

Having now read most of "Spitfire, The History" I would like to expand my comments on the engine detail. My previous comments about technical details and development of the engines are valid but, there are some related points. "Spitfire, The History" does include quite a bit of engine fitment detail in sections where the development details of different versions of the aircraft are described. These details can be interesting as they sometimes list the different trials engines and combinations of propellers and reduction ratio's. However, the details presented are not comprehensive or complete. Nonetheless, they do show the sometimes quite complicated engine/airframe/propeller combinations in trials.
Overall, I feel that despite some of these engine details, the book is unbalanced, it could really be titled, " Spitfire, The Airframe History".
It should really be on everyones' bookshelf though!

Eng