aircraft structure resource books

Most WW II Aircraft manuals are Tech Orders (T.Os - although a few are AN numbers).  Each a/c will usually have a set of 6 books for a particular model (ie B-17 or P-40 etc).  The final number of the TO (the Dash Number) will give you what the book is about:

-1     Aircraft Flight Manual                                                                                                                                             

-2     Erection & Maintenance Manual

-3      Structural Repair

-4      Parts Manual

-5     Weight & Balance

-6     Inspection Requirements

My personal opinion is that the Flight Manual is perhaps the most use full manual for a modeler, followed by the Erection & Maintenance manual.

Check here for availability of a given manual (be prepared for some sticker shock!)

http://www.esscoaircraft.com/c-2-aircraft-manuals.aspx

Thanks guys for the advise

You need to look at getting aircraft T.O. (Technical Orders) and service manuals. You'd have to search for the specific aircraft you are interested in. These manuals are getting harder to find but occasionally you can find them on Amazon or eBay. I routinely sour through the vendors at AirVenture to see if I can find a good one to pickup...problem again there is...more people are doing the same thing, they are getting few and harder to find and when you do they come a premium price. The rarer the aircraft the more costly the materials.

I did see one like that, but will have to hunt to see if I can find it again.

However, for just the WW2 era, by far the majority of aircraft (except for trainers) were semi-monocoque aluminum.  There is one book about the American aircraft industry during the war- I will look for the title but I remember seeing it listed in a catalog recently so it is still available. It does not discuss history or technical details of structure, but it has lots of pictures of assemblies being made.

Many trainers made during the war were part welded steel tubing and a few parts aluminum semi-monocoque.

The aluminum semi-monocoque construction had aluminum skin riveted to aluminum formers and stringers.  Do a google search on semi-monocoque and "aircraft structure".  You may find a lot on the web.