Windsock Datafile 125

Curtiss H.12

by C.A.Owers

Reviewed by Rob Baumgartner

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Colin Owers penned this Datafile, which is the latest to come out of the Albatros Productions stable.

It focuses on the Curtis H-12 flying boat, one of the “Large America” flying boats that patrolled the North Sea. There it courageously fought against Zeppelins, submarines and the defending German seaplanes.

The 34 pages contain a wealth of information, all presented in an easy to read style. After an introduction to the aircraft’s development, the reader is treated to a history which contains numerous adventures undertaken by these machines.

There are 86 black and white period photographs and all are reproduced on good quality gloss paper. The captions that accompany the images are excellent and add much to the narrative presented in the text.

As usual with this series, both 1:72 and 1:48 general arrangement drawings are presented. Martin Digmayer is responsible for these and due to the enormous size of the aircraft, 9 pages are used.

The colours and markings for the “H” series are touched upon in the final section. This is accompanied by three excellent profiles from Ronny Barr, one showing a Curtis H-8 with the other two representing the H-12. This is complimented by Robert Karr’s striking artwork on the cover.

An appendix gives the dimensions of the H-12B as well as providing a brief description of the various other Curtis flying boat “H” types.
 

Subjects such as this don’t get a lot of coverage in WWI aviation literature. So it’s a credit to the author that he has tackled this subject and managed to present it in such an entertaining way.

With the collection of rare photographs, scale drawings and colour information, this Datafile is destined to be on the shelf of all flying boat fans.

Recommended

Thanks to Albatros Productions for the review sample

Review Copyright © 2007 by Rob Baumgartner
This Page Created on 28 October, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

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