It is now nearly two years since the Royal Aeronautical Society first started considering how it could rehouse its own library collections, as well as act as a co-ordinator for other collections that are at risk across the country. The Society's own library is considered to be one of the most complete in the world. It includes an extensive collection of current aeronautical textbooks and aerospace journals from around the world, and an equally wide ranging collection of technical reports. It is the formal repository for all ICAO publications and has over 100,000 aerospace images including early lantern slides and lithographs.

The U.S. Jet Transport Industry: Competition, Regulation, and Global Market Factors Affecting U.S. Producers
This report to Congress was prepared by the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, in March 2005. It presents a study of the airline and jet transport aircraft manufacturing industries and the impact of U.S. and European government policies and regulations on the global competitive position of U.S. aerospace manufacturers. Specifically, the report offers a detailed look at aerospace-related trade agreements; government support; aircraft certification and regulations; and policies related to aircraft operations, business operations and security. These policies are viewed in the context of airline and manufacturing industries currently undergoing fundamental structural change. Based on a detailed comparison of U.S. and European Union government policies and regulations, the report offers several conclusions as to which policies are likely to have the most significant future impact on open and fair trade in the civil aircraft manufacturing sector.

Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles and Emerging Markets
This is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation report, published in February 2005. It provides the first comprehensive assessment carried out by the FAA/AST of the commercial suborbital reusable launch industry in the United States. The report notes that there has been a resurgence of interest in commercial suborbital spaceflight, stimulated by the emergence of new markets, notably space tourism, and new vehicles developed by entrepreneurs. This document reviews three key areas in this commercial suborbital renaissance: new markets for suborbital spaceflight, companies that are developing vehicles to serve those markets, and spaceports from which these vehicles can operate. It also discusses the recent developments in commercial suborbital spaceflight and the history of suborbital rocketry.

The Economic Impact of Commmercial Space Transportation on the U.S. Economy
This report was presented by the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation in March 2004 and is a second study of the commercial launch industry's effect on the nation's economy. It features a quantitative analysis of the extent to which the manufacture and sale of commercial launch vehicles, as well as the conduct of commercial space activities enabled by the launch industry, are responsible for contributing to production and generating jobs in a variety of space- and non-space related industries in the United States. It also examines the U.S. commercial space transportation industry and the launch-enabled industries together to assess the full economic impact of commercial space transportation on the U.S. economy, including the effects on economic activity, employee earnings, and number of jobs in all major U.S. industry sectors.

U.S. Commercial Space Transportation Developments and Concepts: Vehicles, Technologies, and Spaceports 2005
This report reviews the major events relating to U.S. commercial space transportation in the past year and showcases current and planned U.S. commercial and commercially-oriented activities. The report is produced by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) and addresses reusable launch vehicles (RLV) as well as expendable launch vehicles (ELV), propulsion technologies, and launch and reentry sites – commonly referred to as “spaceports”– to provide a complete picture of the U.S. commercial space transportation industry. This report reviews space transportation programs and projects as well as launch and reentry sites that will impact and support the development of commercial space activities and applications.

The UK Aerospace Industry : Fifteenth Report of Session 2004-2005
The full-text of the House of Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee fifteenth report on the UK Aerospace Industry published on the 5 April 2005. It recognises that aerospace is one of the most successful sectors in the UK economy and is currently the world's second largest aerospace industry with a turnover of more than £17bn in 2003, providing employment for over 120,000 people.

UK Aerospace Industry : Government Response to the Committee's Fifteenth Report of Session 2004-05
In July 2005, having received the Government's response to its earlier report, the Committee published this special follow up report. The report notes that the Government accepts the Trade and Industry committee report as a fair and balanced assessment of the competitiveness issues facing the UK Aerospace Industry. It also makes some specific points and recommendations in relation to technology transfer, emerging competitors, repayable launch investments to equipment makers, study of European subsidies, research and development funding, National Aerospace Technology Strategy, and the Aerospace Innovation and Growth Team (AeIGT). The Government's response is included as an appendix.

AIAA Electronic Library
The AIAA Electronic Library contains more than four decades of technical information and documents relating to Aerospace and Astronautics. Inculded within the database are the numerous AIAA meetings papers which can be searched by: paper title or title keyword; author name or affiliation; AIAA paper number; year of paper's presentation; database accession number; conference name keyword, and complete conference title. A number of sort options can be used to display records. Copies of AIAA papers can be ordered online as a charged service.

Defence Research and Development Branch of Canada
This agency, within the Department of National Defence, provides access to it’s searchable database of Defence Research Reports, a database of scientific and technical research produced by the DRDC over the past 50 years. The search form allows you to sarch the database by title, author or keyword and you can limit your search by date or sort your ‘hits’ by report date or title.

DoD Index of Specifications and Standards (DODISS)
This lists the unclassified Federal and Military specifications, standards, and related standardization documents, and those non- government standards adopted for DoD use. Users may now link directly to full text DoD Specifications and Standards located on the Defense Automated Printing Service (DAPS), eAccess database. Full text documents available in PDF may be downloaded by clicking on the title in your DoDISS search results. Please note that certain specifications and standards cancelled prior to 1986 may not be available.

EUR-Lex
This site covers legislation in force in the European Union (EU) and new legislation as it is enacted. The site is available in all the official languages of the EU. The site contains full text versions of all of the treaties, free access to the C and L series of the Official Journal for a period of 45 days after publication, the electronic version of the legal acts in force which appear in the Official Journal, all instruments adopted by the European institutions pursuant to provisions of the basic treaties, legislation in preparation, community preparatory acts, parliamentary questions and case law. The site is searchable and browseable and full text documents can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat in PDF format.

NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
NIX provides a single point of entry to various photographic databases of six NASA centers (Langley, Lewis, Ames, Dryden, Goddard and Johnson). Search capabilities of NIX include simple searches, complex searches, and browsing. NIX returns thumbnail sized images, textual descriptions, image numbers, links to higher resolution images, links to more information, and links to the NASA Center that stores each image. NIX also provides tips to users on searching, copyright information, and a comments section. NIX is currently being expanded to include additional photos from the remaining centers.

National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
The NTIS is the official source for U.S. scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information. This web site includes a searchable database which enables retrieval of bibliographic references to items added to the NTIS (National Technical Information Service) database since 1990. The service can also be browsed by specific topic areas. Items available include technical reports, CD-ROMs, datafiles, videotapes, and audiocassettes. NTIS is concerned with the sale and distribution of US Government funded research reports. Aerospace is one of the key subject areas covered by the database.

National Transportation Library
The National Transportation Library contains documents and databases provided from throughout the transportation community. The Library contains links to full-text documents. It can be searched, or browsed by subject. The Aviation section can be browsed under the following headings: Air traffic control, Airports and facilities, Aviation economics and finance, Aviation energy and environment, Aviation planning and policy, Aviation safety / Airworthiness, Aviation laws and regulations, Aviation human factors, Newsletters.

Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database
The Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database is the world’s largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation information. TRIS is produced and maintained by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) at the National Academies of Sciences. TRIS contains almost a half million records of published and ongoing research on all modes and disciplines in the field of transportation. Each year over 20,000 new records are added to TRIS. Other features to note about the resource include the following: selected links to full text or sources of full text; links to the IRRD database for further coverage of international transportation; and searching by author, title, and subject.

SPIE Digital Library
The SPIE Digital Library currently includes more than 120,000 technical papers from SPIE journals and conference proceedings, including full coverage from 1998 to the present. It is possible to both browse tables of contents, and search, and members may full the full text. Non-members can view the bibliographic information and abstracts free of charge.

Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Technical Papers
The web site provides access to a database of Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) ground vehicle papers and aerospace papers published since February 1998. The database provides bibliographic information including, title, paper number, author, meeting where presented, and associated book number. The database can be searched by keyword or paper number. Papers published since February 1998 can be downloaded as a charged service.

Moondust: In Search of the Men who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith
Bloomsbury, 308 pp, £17.99

A journalist's fascinating account of the Apollo programme as seen through the eyes of the surviving nine astronauts who walked on the moon. Andrew Smith's microsite contains an interview with the author, extracts from the book, as well as links to a number of reviews.

Encyclopedia of Space Science and Technology
Hans Mark (Editor)
John Wiley, 2003-2005

First published in 2003 as two volume printed work, this is now available online. Please see the dedicated page on the Wiley Interscience site for more information.