Thorough and informative, 03 Jun 2008
Of all the airfield books currently availible this one has to be the best value for money (especially at Amazon!! plug plug). The text covers the usual suspects, relying on documentary evidence where possible. This leaves you in no doubt as to the authenticity of the information presented. What makes this a little different is the fact that the author lumps the entire 20th Century together and manages to pull it off. I have to say the best areas must be the Cold War aspects, something not normally put in context. And as this book hopes to be a reference work it is nicely rounded up with a chapter on current preservation issues. Some typos, as has previously been noted, could have let this down, however seeing as the publishers went bust during its production it is lucky the text made it out at all. The way the subject matter is covered makes the content well worth a read. Did you know we nearly bombed France in the late 1920s? I did after reading this!

A fresh, new look at an old subject, 05 Mar 2008
I was worried I might not get this as the release date was December 2007, however it arrived last week. Ok so what can we say about this latest in a long line of books on military airfields. Well the author approaches this from a rather different, possibly unique angle. Rather than laying out the usual `what flew from where' format he has looked at the `why was that airfield built where it was'. Now this might be obvious to many who have an aviation interest, however there are many surprises. In a publication world obsessed with WWII it is good to see other periods receiving equal attention. The author takes us from the first sites pre-WWI around Salisbury Plain, the RNAS Airship station and Home Defence Squadron distribution and Training Depot Stations of the Great War. Covers the first Expansion in the mid-1920s that spawned Abingdon, Bicester and the reopening of Boscombe Down. The Expansions of the 1930s and subsequent sites across the UK for WWII. This is followed by a very useful section on the Cold War including distribution of the V Force and the subsequent hardening of airfields towards the end of the 1970s. The final chapter discusses some of the issues surrounding the preservation of `large landscape features' (typical archaeological speak) such as airfields. This nicely summarised work underway and the sites/stations already protected. There are a large number of photographs embedded within the text including some nice shots of Caldale Airship Station on the Orkneys. The distribution maps worked very well. The Advanced Landing Ground layout map was a little confusing and maybe slightly optimistic at the size presented however I did work it out. There are a few typos, but nothing that detracts from the text. And I was glad to see that the author states clearly in the intro that this book does not cover every station in the United Kingdom, but lets face it if he had it would have been the size of a telephone directory!!

So overall does the book do what it says on the tin? Yes. I spent three days reading it and enjoyed every minute. The text across the chapters is underpinned with extracts from various historical sources, all demonstrating the reasons for the airfields being built or distributed across Britain. There are some unusual stories including what happened to Stonehenge Airfield and why Boscombe Down survives today, How we re-equipped in the 1920 in case we had to bomb France, the Aircraft Storage Units and their brilliant use of the local topography and some of the more chaotic aspects of the wartime stations. The Cold War structure of warfare and how that drove those airfields retained and rather importantly what is happening now in the wake of `Options for Change'. Splendid publication with a unique and interesting story to tell, especially since the majority of stations are now closed and the majority have been built over or are about to be so.

Thorough and informative, 03 Jun 2008
Of all the airfield books currently availible this one has to be the best value for money (especially at Amazon!! plug plug). The text covers the usual suspects, relying on documentary evidence where possible. This leaves you in no doubt as to the authenticity of the information presented. What makes this a little different is the fact that the author lumps the entire 20th Century together and manages to pull it off. I have to say the best areas must be the Cold War aspects, something not normally put in context. And as this book hopes to be a reference work it is nicely rounded up with a chapter on current preservation issues. Some typos, as has previously been noted, could have let this down, however seeing as the publishers went bust during its production it is lucky the text made it out at all. The way the subject matter is covered makes the content well worth a read. Did you know we nearly bombed France in the late 1920s? I did after reading this!

A fresh, new look at an old subject, 05 Mar 2008
I was worried I might not get this as the release date was December 2007, however it arrived last week. Ok so what can we say about this latest in a long line of books on military airfields. Well the author approaches this from a rather different, possibly unique angle. Rather than laying out the usual `what flew from where' format he has looked at the `why was that airfield built where it was'. Now this might be obvious to many who have an aviation interest, however there are many surprises. In a publication world obsessed with WWII it is good to see other periods receiving equal attention. The author takes us from the first sites pre-WWI around Salisbury Plain, the RNAS Airship station and Home Defence Squadron distribution and Training Depot Stations of the Great War. Covers the first Expansion in the mid-1920s that spawned Abingdon, Bicester and the reopening of Boscombe Down. The Expansions of the 1930s and subsequent sites across the UK for WWII. This is followed by a very useful section on the Cold War including distribution of the V Force and the subsequent hardening of airfields towards the end of the 1970s. The final chapter discusses some of the issues surrounding the preservation of `large landscape features' (typical archaeological speak) such as airfields. This nicely summarised work underway and the sites/stations already protected. There are a large number of photographs embedded within the text including some nice shots of Caldale Airship Station on the Orkneys. The distribution maps worked very well. The Advanced Landing Ground layout map was a little confusing and maybe slightly optimistic at the size presented however I did work it out. There are a few typos, but nothing that detracts from the text. And I was glad to see that the author states clearly in the intro that this book does not cover every station in the United Kingdom, but lets face it if he had it would have been the size of a telephone directory!!

So overall does the book do what it says on the tin? Yes. I spent three days reading it and enjoyed every minute. The text across the chapters is underpinned with extracts from various historical sources, all demonstrating the reasons for the airfields being built or distributed across Britain. There are some unusual stories including what happened to Stonehenge Airfield and why Boscombe Down survives today, How we re-equipped in the 1920 in case we had to bomb France, the Aircraft Storage Units and their brilliant use of the local topography and some of the more chaotic aspects of the wartime stations. The Cold War structure of warfare and how that drove those airfields retained and rather importantly what is happening now in the wake of `Options for Change'. Splendid publication with a unique and interesting story to tell, especially since the majority of stations are now closed and the majority have been built over or are about to be so.


Power book, 28 Sep 2007

Who would have thought that a collection of buildings containing basically the same thing would have produced such a fascinating book and who but Princeton would take a chance and publish it. It seems to fit right into their quirky line of Americana, which includes, for instance, a history of paint-by-numbers (ISBN 1568982828) a photo tour of the brothels of Nevada (ISBN 1568984189) or a collection of amateur QSL cards (156898281X).

Christopher Payne has done his best to record the contents of these buildings before they are gone forever. His efforts are perfect examples of what industrial archaeology photography should look like, well lit, straightforward and content rich images with fortunately no angled shots, no out-of-focus areas merging into darkness or meaningless close-ups. These photos really tell a story and being well printed (200dpi) on quality paper helps, too.

As well as the fifty-four main photos there are others taken by him and several historical ones in the essay describing the workings of the subway electrical supply (some of the technical drawings included in the essay could have been larger though) and like his photos Payne makes the world of rotary converters, transformers, bus boards and potheads come alive.

All in all a super little book and a good example of how a tiny part of industrial America can become fascinating with well-written words and elegant photography.