From The Ground Up: Training RAAF Technical Ground Staff

Cold War History Australian Military History Military Aviation History Biography & Memoir RAAF History Technical Education History Military Engineering Australian Aviation History

First edition 1997 paperback of “From the Ground Up: Training RAAF Technical Ground Staff” is the only dedicated history of how Australia built the skilled technicians who keep the RAAF flying. Across 222 illustrated pages, historian C.D. Coulthard-Clark moves beyond the cockpit to tell the remarkable story of the apprentices, fitters, armourers and radio techs who began as teenagers in 1948 and ended up maintaining everything from Mustangs and Meteors to F-111s and F/A-18s. Collectors of Australian military aviation now hunt this Air Power Studies Centre title because it combines official records with first-hand memories, rare photographs of recruit intakes, hangar life and deployed bases, and fold-out diagrams that do not appear in later reprints.

The book’s value lies in its unmatched detail: squadron-by-squadron postings, syllabus changes, even the evolution of the distinctive dark-blue overalls and “snowdrops” caps. Readers discover how Wagga’s 1950s brick classrooms, Richmond’s wartime hangars and Edinburgh’s new workshops shaped not just aircraft readiness but Australian Cold-war culture. Young-adult and adult enthusiasts alike gain technical insight—how to safety-wire a Mirage engine, calibrate a radar altimeter—while military historians receive a data-rich reference that still underpins RAAF training doctrine today.

This vintage copy arrives with its original dust jacket, bright and unclipped, protectively wrapped to prevent the small spine tear from extending. Inside, the pages are crisp, unmarked and tightly bound—no ex-library stamps, no inscriptions, no dog-ears—making it an excellent shelf or display piece for collectors seeking a clean first edition of Australia’s premier RAAF technical memoir.

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