British Homebuilt Aircraft Since 1920

Some excellent booklets, of the greatest interest to vintage aeroplane enthusiasts, have come to my notice. One of these is the informative “British Homebuilt Aircraft Since 1920”, by Ken Ellis, with a Rotocraft section by Eric Myall. It covers not only one-offs, but limited production light-aeroplanes, gliders, balloons and airships, etc., is adequately illustrated, is indexed by Reg. Letters, and is published by Merseyside Aviation Society Ltd., Room 14, Hangar No. 2, Liverpool Airport, Liverpool L24 8QE, this much enlarged, revised second edition costing £3.95, or £4.40 by post. A measure of its comprehensiveness and “browsability” can be gained when I remark that I was wondering whether it might include a home built biplane of which I was shown a snapshot by its builder while I was at the RAE during the war. This little aeroplane was powered by a Rover Eight flat-twin engine and never left the ground — when later I studied a Rover Eight power-curve I realised why! The book happened to have fallen open at page 48 — it has 214 8″ x 5 ½” pages — and there is what I think I was seeking — details of the Gibb biplane, built in Scotland in the 1930s, some parts of which survive in the local Museum. You see what I mean — W.B.