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.”