I received my copy of the
Aircraft Design Sketch Book in the mail today and, I must say, it is one of the best books I have ever purchased. I would highly recommend everyone pick up a copy. (On that note, if you're not into historical book collecting, I would consider buying one of the reprints as are significantly cheaper than an original. However, I cannot speak to their production quality.)
I find this to be rather ironic, given that it is essentially nothing more than a collection of drawings excerpted from the popular aviation periodicals at the time. Specifically, Aeroplane, Aviation, Flight, L'Aeronautique, and Jane's All the World's Aircraft. This includes copying the original accompanying captions. (Some of which are still in the original French!)
However, this is also one of the booklet's biggest downsides. Since the drawings are taken out of context it is not clear as to which aircraft they show; and while a good portion are readily identifiable to the aviation enthusiast, others are far less obvious. Two problems exacerbate this: First, the majority of the drawings depict only portions of aircraft. So while an entire Grumman Goose is distinctive, its landing gear, shown in isolation, is not. Second, while the book is well organized - being divided into sections according to the part of the airplane covered - the layout on each page is a bit haphazard. In some cases, it is difficult to determine which illustration original caption is referring to because it is located close to two of them.
Nevertheless, the drawings are
really good. I doubt you'll find a more accurate, detailed, or better labeled explanation of aircraft cutaways and sections unless you have access to the original blueprints themselves.
One of the reasons that it is such an excellent work is that it was compiled at a perfect moment in time: 1940. This means that, on the one hand, it includes all the cutting edge aspects of aircraft construction of the prewar era. Yet, at the same time, because it was produced so early in the war, nothing had been tested in combat and therefore the ineffective and impractical designs had not yet been weeded out. So all of the concepts that would later be forgotten by history are included. (For example, all but the final drawing in an
Axis History Forum thread appear in the booklet.) It's a good reminder that when the war started there were no B-29s, P-51s, Lancasters, or Typhoons, but only B-17Bs, Hawk 75s, Hurricanes (described as "The Fastest Fighter in Service"), and Harrows. Finally, if you forgot that the United States was not yet at war, although it makes up a minority of the subject matter, there's still even some coverage of commercial aircraft.