The Ship Model Forum

This book is a meticulously detailed history of British aircraft-carrying ships from the earliest experimental vessels to the Queen Elizabeth class, currently under construction and the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. Individual chapters cover the design and construction of each class, with full technical details, and there are extensive summaries of every ship's career. Apart from the obvious large-deck carriers, the book also includes seaplane carriers, escort carriers and MAC ships, the maintenance ships built on carrier hulls, unbuilt projects, and the modern LPH. It concludes with a look at the future of naval aviation, while numerous appendices summarise related subjects like naval aircraft, recognition markings and the circumstances surrounding the loss of every British carrier. As befits such an important reference work, it is heavily illustrated with a magnificent gallery of photos and plans, including the first publication of original plans in full colour, one on a magnificent gatefold. Written by the leading historian of British carrier aviation, himself a retired Fleet Air Arm pilot, it displays the authority of a lifetime's research combined with a practical understanding of the issues surrounding the design and operation of aircraft carriers. As such British Aircraft Carriers is certain to become the standard work on the subject.

This sounds terrific:

British Aircraft Carriers: Design, Development & Service Histories
by David Hobbs,
352 pages,
published by Seaforth Publishing,
due 30 Nov 2013,
ISBN 978-1848321380.

The US Naval Institute will publish and distribute this book for the North American market in May 2014 according to their website. Bummer for those of us wanting this book for Christmas but the wait will be worth it I am sure! Seaforth is the original publisher and they handle titles for the European market. Amazon(US) has yet to list the Naval Institure Press version but I am sure they will soon enough. Like Burt's trilogy on British Battleships, Seaforth republished them first and then the Naval Institute Press picked it up for North America a few months later.