This gallery subject is special to me and for once I have shown all the manual pages, not just the ones that contain drawings or plans useful for modellers.

The reason for this is that it is a cracking example of the genre; typed on old 'sit up' type writers and all the drawings are hand-drawn, no computers here! It is also an interesting read and repays careful study as to how the Empire was to be flown and, more to the point, exactly what that entailed. You will note from the first page that it was written on 3rd January 1937. 'Canopus', the first 'C' Class Empire first flew on 4th July 1936, with 3 others ('Caledonia', 'Centaurus' and 'Cavalier') later the same year. 'Cambria' first flew on 21st January 1937 and so this manual could well have been read just prior to that. Now, there's a thought.

I have made these pages available as a pdf also (see the Empire Reference Archive elsewhere) but please note that it takes a while to download, so you might want to do the same yourself with these images in your own time. If you have access to any other Empire Manuals please consider scanning the pages and sending it to SEAWINGS for inclusion here, as the detailed drawings contained in the pages are priceless.