The 'Airfield Focus' series of booklets...

I regualrly get asked how did the Airfield Focus series start and evolve... this is the story!

The concept of the ‘Airfield Focus’ series was brought to me following discussions between John Hamlin and Aldon Ferguson – they thought that while the PSL ‘Actions Stations’ series was good, the design really only provided ‘thumbnail sketches’ of each airfield, and that the sheer cost of producing conventional books for each airfield in the UK would be prohibitive – and there probably was not the market anyway!

I then spent a year investigating, discussing and considering the options, including just how large the series range was likely to be. I also spent a lot of time and effort doing market research in an attempt to discover just how large the market was. The series range looked like being around 700 airfields, but then flying boat bases, landing grounds and civilian operations needed to be factored in to the equation – I decided on a round 1000. As to the market – that proved almost impossible to come up with any firm predictions.

This did not bode well for the project, but there was one possibility that might let it move forward. Book production by digital means was in it’s infancy, but even then it was clear that here was the way forward. Instead of tying up a lot of money in conventional printing it was possible to use digi-technology to produce booklets ‘on demand’ in very small print runs.

The eventual concept decided upon was that each title would stand up in its own right, but that the series could be collected to form what would hopefully become an invaluable reference library. The initial format was for each to have at least 24 pages, about 10,000 words, around 20 photographs, at least one cartographically drawn map and a 'Datafile' that describes all known units, including their codes, that used a particular airfield.

One decision made very early on, and one that has certainly been proved worthwhile, was to use authors who are either local to or has a specific interest in a particular airfield. It certainly has been the case that they have access to either the little nitty-gritty pieces of information that a professional, commissioned writer may not have, but they also are more likely to have access to pictures never seen before. Talking of which, I am always more than happy to use a poor quality but hardly seen picture over a standard ‘agency’ shot that everyone has seen time and time again. It also needs saying that unlike other publishers, we know that aviation does not start and finish in East Anglia!

The ‘first three’ in the series came out in 1992 – they were originally intended to be published every eight weeks, but this have proved to be something that is impossible even to this day. The first twenty-nine editions came out in ‘Royal Quarto’ size, but after that which a change of equipment we swapped to A5.

Around Edition 40 I managed to instigate some of the changes that had been indicated as required not only by more market research, but also by sales figures. For some time I was aware that two of our best sales outlets were not any of the specialist aviation bookshops or sellers, but – believe it or not – a Victorian style tea-shoppe in the heart of England and a music and book shop in the Highlands of Scotland! Direct sales to the public also showed that we were not selling all to the enthusiasts.
Airfield Focus was reaching a number of markets:
1 The general airfield or aviation enthusiast. They would collect more or less every edition produced.

2 The specific airfield or aviation enthusiast. They would collect such things as USAAF/USAF bases, flying boat bases, RFC airfields and the like.

3 The Air Force person (or next of kin thereof) who was only interested in collecting those airfields or bases they or their relations had served on.

4 Those with an interest in history local to their area. They may not know one end of an aircraft from another, but they are interested in what happened on that area of land just down the road from their house.

5 Local Councils and Property Developers interested in developing a particular airfield site as it appeared on the market, specificially if there is any incidents or accidents that are recorded that need the possible clearance of any ordinance.

The content of each title was quite suitable for markets 1,2,3 and 5, but it was clear from feedback that our content needed some work to appeal better to market 4 – which was clearly the largest number of sales by a large margin!

I did not want to ‘dumb it down’ but at the same time I was aware that using a proliferation of abbreviations such as OUT, OCU, BSTU and the like which those in 1,2, and 3 would understand, local history buffs may not. Therefore it became ‘house-style’ that such uses was acceptable as long as the first time use wrote the abbrieviation out in full first. These changes proved to be correct, for we saw a greater and greater increase in sales to local history buffs, tourist boards – especially in Scotland – and people who bought a title that related to an airfield within 20 miles or so of their address.

To date we have done 80 in the standard series, and 8 Airfield Focus Specials – A4 sized, wire-bound softbacks that are about airfield that just have too much information or pictures to fit into a standard edition.

Do we get complaints? Sure we do! Some people don’t like the digital quality – some people do not like the wire-binding. I just ignore them because of this:-
1 At under £5 and £10 respectively they represent very good value for money.

2 Wire binding – as opposed to so-called ‘Perfect’ binding - is the only way we know that is secure and cost effective for the digital style of production we use.

3 We are putting the information back out in the public domain in a manner that is almost certainly not going to be done by other means.
We constantly need new authors – it’s remarkable how many ‘bluffs’ we have called from people who claim they have been writing the history of a certain airfield for years… we offer to put their work into print only to have all the excuses imaginable trotted out! The best we have heard so far is that after over two years of asking this so-called ‘author’ was burgled – the only thing being stolen was his manuscript and picture file!

Nevertheless, we DO need new authors – if you have material about your local airfield (and it does not matter if it is one that is obscure that no-one has heard of) and would like to see it in print, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!