How they did it

Air Classics, Apr 2002 by Hulett, George

The Royal Air Force between the wars

Operational requirements defined the aircraft performance characteristics that the Royal Air Force wanted to implement in its doctrine of air warfare. They initiated the process of specification, design, development, and production of service aircraft. The RAF and Aircraft Design, 1923-1939: Air Staff Operational Requirements by Colin Sinnott (published in Britain by Frank Cass) examines the evolution of the RAF's operational requirements for its home defense air force - for bombers to mount a deterrent counter-offensive and for fighters to provide direct defense of Britain.

The book's treatment is historical. It discusses the management processes, policies and decisions relevant to operational requirements on the basis of detailed study of Air Ministry papers of the time. The Ministry then appears in a more favorable light than has often been suggested from inadequate research and undue hindsight.

By tracing the development of operational requirements, the author exposes the thinking behind the RAF's quest for effective fighter and bomber aircraft. He describes the ideas and concepts of air warfare that were adopted in the 1920s, and demonstrates how these evolved into the Air Staffs requirements for the aircraft with which the RAF would fight the Second World War. This gives a new perspective on the origins of many well-known British aircraft and shows that commonly accepted descriptions of these are unsound or incomplete.