• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
General Aviation News

General Aviation News

Because flying is cool

  • Pictures of the Day
    • Submit Picture of the Day
  • Stories
    • News
    • Features
    • Opinion
    • Products
    • NTSB Accidents
    • ASRS Reports
  • Comments
  • Classifieds
    • Place Classified Ad
  • Events
  • Digital Archives
  • Subscribe
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Historic manuals online

By General Aviation News Staff · January 6, 2006 ·

Researchers and aviation enthusiasts now have access to a large and growing collection of rare and historical pilot manuals, pilot operating handbooks, flight manuals and aircraft manuals online.

PilotManuals.com, a division of Rare Aviation, has just released a collection of more than 11,000 printed and downloadable manuals that are available at PilotManuals.com.

“As a pilot and historian, I found it frustrating to try to search for and research lost and rare manuals and information on historic aircraft, so I created this resource for everyone to be able to use,” said Steve Rhode, chief pilot and archivist for PilotManuals.com. “Since many manuals are downloadable, researchers from around the world can instantly access long-lost information on aircraft from World War I on. The site is also loaded with many warbird manuals and historical aviation documents.”

Also on the site are a number of restored historical aviation movies. “These films include a growing number of restored gun camera film collections from World War II,” he said. “Films from both United States aircraft and German Luftwaffe gun cameras are available.”

Share this story

  • Share on Twitter Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook Share on Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit Share on Reddit
  • Share via Email Share via Email

Become better informed pilot.

Join 110,000 readers each month and get the latest news and entertainment from the world of general aviation direct to your inbox, daily.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Curious to know what fellow pilots think on random stories on the General Aviation News website? Click on our Recent Comments page to find out. Read our Comment Policy here.

© 2025 Flyer Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Writer’s Guidelines
  • Photographer’s Guidelines