RAF Cosford - Alec Brew

RAF Cosford by Alec Brew
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: The History Press Ltd (15 Jun 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0752452118
ISBN-13: 978-0752452111

Originally reiviewed in Airfield Review issue 125

Firstly a word of warning about this book: it is a slightly updated version of a similar book published in 1995 and therefore if you already have that version, it’s probably not worth purchasing this re-issue. In common with many of this publishers’ (and its predecessors) books, it is primarily a collection of photographs relating to this particular airfield. Cosford of course has always primarily been a training base for various ground trades and this role continues to the present day. For many years it was also the home to No.9 Maintenance Unit which resulted in it being built with the usual extensive array of hangars. Some of the these are now used of course by the Aerospace Museum.

The book covers all aspects of Cosford’s history, from construction, through its major units, to other uses such as the museum, its use by Boulton Paul as a flight test airfield and as a location for one of the UK’s most famous indoor athletic tracks. The photographs are generally well captioned although some have not been updated to reflect changes over the last ten years: for example the breaking up of the British Airways collection and the replacement by Grobs of the University Air Squadron Bulldogs. It’s also surprising that, although briefly mentioned in the introductory text, there are no photographs of the new Cold War Museum building, very much the centrepiece of the museum site. Although worth purchasing for those who missed this book first time round, it still feels like an opportunity missed, although this may not necessarily be the author’s fault.