Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5

1916 onwards (S.E.5, S.E.5a, S.E.5b & S.E-5E) by Nick Garton

Once its initial engine teething problems were ironed out, the R.A.F. (Royal Aircraft Factory) S.E.5 (Scout Experimental 5) rapidly rose up the ranks to become one of the best Allied fighters of the First World War.

Another worthy addition to the Haynes Manual family, this edition presents a great mix of historical background combined with some excellent information gleaned from current restored and airworthy machines such as the Shuttleworth Collection’s own S.E.5a, F904. The book benefits from the fact that F904 is the world’s only genuine example from WW1 and even saw operational service with 84 Squadron in November 1918 over Northern France. Air to air shots by Darren Harbar are another added bonus.

The book is broken down into six main chapters, these are: The S.E.5 story, Restore to flight, Anatomy of the S.E.5, The pilot’s view, The owner’s view and The engineer’s view. The appendices cover the S.E.5 in fiction, surviving aircraft and even scale models, which is a bigger list of scales and manufacturers than you might realise.

One of the better aviation manuals I have seen in recent times – highly recommended buy. Thanks very much Max and Ellie at McCann PR and to Haynes for supplying this copy to Military Modelling.

ISBN: 978-0-85733-846-4

Price: £25.00

Pages: 190

Format: hardback – A4

Publisher: J H Haynes & Co. Ltd

Website: www.haynes.co.uk