I've used these guys myself. It's not easy to come by early editions of Av News in particular and they have the lot on-call.
While a bit expensive, the service was fast and I had the plans (I ordered about 12 sets) in the post in about a week and a half.
They appear to be quite comprehensive and accurate general arrangement drawings, and certainly an effective place to start. Certainly they are better than anything you can get free on the web. Unless, of course, you know Mr Smith.
Apparently this used to be the back-issue department, but they long ago ran out of actual magazines to send.
You got yours Grubby a bit quicker than I did but at the time we had major problems with the Royal Mail so that may have been a factor. Yeah their not bad if slightly on the steep side.
Here's another thought, guys ... Go through their index and work out what issues you want and buy the originals on eBay! I've just had a look and they seem to be around the $2.00 AUD mark!!
At one point I frantically started collecting Aviation News newspapers and magazines for their scale plans, until it turned out most of these 'scale' plans are hardly to scale. Some are even complete bogus, such as the EE Canberra plans. Measuring the various views turned up loads of errors (some as big as 5 feet) and there's a plane giveaway these drawings are rubbish too: there is a clearly asymmetrical wing cross section on the drawing. The Canberra had a symmetrical airfoil. I'm really not impressed with draftsmen making up stuff as they go...
I suppose I could sell off the lot. At a fiver each it could be quite a profitable undertaking! (and hey, you get a magazine for free with that - no photocopies either but the real thing!)
Agreed, if an aircraft exists there is no reason why a draftsman cannot gain access to take measurements of the actual aircraft and get it right. But for something that has been maybe 50 years since it went to the scrap heap (or the bottom of the North Sea), getting a drawing that is a half decent effort is a starting point. Well for profiling anyway, saying that I can see it being a right royal pain in the ass trying to build a 3D model with them.
source, internet, cost, free
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