Air Force - RevuAIR

What an Addition to the Aviation Bibliography

By fStop Fitzgerald | 18 July 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

at-home Boeing B-47 Stratojet: Strategic Air Command’s Transitional Bomber

By C. Mike Habermehl and Robert S. Hopkins III

Specialty Press, 2018. 320 pages. $44.95.

The Stratojet was every 1950s kid’s ideal of U.S. aviation might. It was big. Six jets hanging out there on the wings for all to see. It was fast. It even looked like it was going 600 mph when it was just sitting on the ramp. When discussing “clean” aircraft, the B-47 is among the first mentioned.

It was among the first designs released by Revell in 1954 once that company began producing plastic models from their own molds in 1953. It was re-released in 2006. Yes, the big jet caught the public’s attention. And the Soviets’ as well.

There are nearly a dozen significant books about the B-47, most published since the type went out of service. Thus, they should be very informative about even some of the most classified aspects of the bomber’s operations. Habermehl and Hopkins have very obviously capitalized on this and produced the most recent and perhaps the best on the topic.

This is an impressive work. It easily replaces—replaces—at least five books on my shelves. Few books can make that claim. One gets that sense that the narrative is an airframe-by-airframe, minute-by-minute account of the B-47’s history. It is, however, only a sense. The prose never has the staccato recitation of aircraft and dates. The hardcore airplane junkie readily finds that information in the expansive 66 pages of appendices.

It is the authors’ attention to detail—significant detail—and their logical presentation that yields the sense, but not the reality of information overload. Despite six decades of following aviation, I found many revelations in their work, a number of them surprising. For instance, the Air Force’s FICON (Fighter Conveyor) wingtip-tow project is well known. But the authors, in a section called “Drawing Board Disasters,” discuss not only a B-47/dual F-86 combination, but also a B-36/dual B-47 concept. Surprising as it is, they note that aerodynamic studies supported the feasibility of both projects. But these never got off the drawing board.

The physical presentation of the material is in a word “fantastic.” All books should be printed with this quality. The paper is thick, glossy stock, which reproduces the well-exposed and processed photographs as close to their original state as possible. Of course some images could or should be larger, but in the interest of more being better (more images, more information), they are reproduced large enough for the detail to be seen. Excellent informative graphics and charts are strategically placed throughout the book, further enhancing the narrative.

In this day of paying $50 for specialty books being the norm, this is an unequivocal no-brainer. If you want to know everything about the B-47, if you are interested in the early days of jet-propelled bombers or the Strategic Air Command or simply the evolution of an aircraft, this book not only belongs on your shelf, it must be read and re-read.

Good Starter Book

By fStop Fitzgerald | 29 May 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Aviation Records in the Jet Age: The Planes and Technologies Behind the Breakthroughs

by William A. Flanagan

Specialty Press, 2017. 192 pages. $39.95

My sense—and that is all it is, a sense—is that the author’s title was much closer to simply Aviation Records rather than as now titled, and that marketing got a hold of it, and tried to spin it for sales. Frankly, if purchased by title alone, you should get your money back. The first jet doesn’t appear until page 32 of the 183-page book; losing nearly 20 percent of the real estate. And that doesn’t include about 20 more pages concerning non-jet aircraft, but are technically within the scope of the title as their records were set in the jet “age.”

Enough about titles and spin. Ignore the title. What do you get for your money?

Easily more than 50 percent of the book is dedicated to imagery, most of it large, and all of it very detailed. They are well reproduced on the typical slick glossy stock one recognizes as a Specialty Press trademark. The text is well written and authoritative, but it is not Ernie Gann. And that is okay; because the book is aimed at facts, not prose.

But with that in mind along with the title, one would expect to see easily digestible charts showing progression over time or comparisons of higher, faster, farther. There are none. If you want to know the speed increase from 1945 to 1955, you’ll have to search for each in the text and make the comparisons yourself. The only enumeration of records can be found in three pages of two appendices, and at that these are not readily decipherable as each entry is in narrative form. Frankly, I haven’t figured them out.

Appendix One: Speed Records, sub-category Progressive Speed Records In Aviation History lists just 13 records. Obviously this is incomplete. Worse, it has four “No. 10”s. Two could be justified, I guess, because they are for “First Speed Record Faster Than 2,000 mph” in both jet and rocket categories. But the other two 10s are for 3k and 4k mph, all on different dates. Sub-category Major World Speed Records, which numbers to 24, begins with No. 2, includes two No. 4s, and is missing (I think) Nos. 6, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, and 19. Thankfully, the third sub-category, Significant Speed Flights by Mach Number, is not listed by number so there is no confusion on that score.

In the absence of any explanation for this numbering, this is indicative of poor—very poor—editing. What about the rest of the book?

And among the triumvirate of aviation records, farther does not appear at all.

The author provides each of the chapters with a variety of interesting and well-illustrated sidebars to expand on his work. For instance, Chapter 5 relating to airliners and Mach 2 fighters includes a near full-page reproduction of a Fairey Aviation Company advertisement hawking their Delta 2’s official world speed record of 1,132 mph, a sidebar on boosted flight control systems, and one on Russia’s race to have the first jetliner. And that is typical of the chapters. There is so much more here than simply records that it is obvious the author was thinking far beyond the range of the limitation put on his work by the current title.

For me, this book was disappointing in that it did not add much to what I already knew. I am always interested in comparisons and an author’s reasoning for why and how such advances occurred. While there was little to change my views on the subjects, that will not be the case for all readers.

There is much very good and well-explained detail in this book and I highly recommend it for those getting their feet wet in aviation and its goals of higher, faster, farther.

Aviation Records in the Jet Age is available from Specialty Press at 1-800-895-4585 or www.specialtypress.com.

Reviewed May 2017

This Delivers

By fStop Fitzgerald | 29 May 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

isotretinoin over the counter World’s Fastest Single-Engine Jet Aircraft: The Story of Convair’s F-106 Delta Dart Interceptor

By Doug Barbier

Specialty Press, 2017. 228 pages. $44.95.

I like this book not least because I like the aircraft, but mostly because of the Delta Dart’s relative invisibility among comprehensive aircraft histories and this fills that gap. Certainly there are the Squadron Signal monographs, but they only barely scratch the surface of this incredibly complex aircraft and the air defense system of which it was a part.

The author does a credible job at exposing and explaining the complexities. It was very good to see Mike Machat listed as the book’s editor. That alone adds an imprimatur of accuracy and authenticity. Bravo to Specialty Press for that hire!

The book is typical of Special Press’s 10-inchers; their square-format, approximately 200-page, glossy white paper aero books. “Typical” is not condescending; here, it means quality and expectation—many high quality, often large, well-reproduced photographs, and crisp, clean reproduction with graphics that ease the reader through the text.

World’s Fastest delivers.

It is because of the F-106’s complexity that the book has 23 (!) chapters to better organize and aid reader absorption of all the information. The narrative traces the delta speedster from its origins in the F-102B, its MA-1 electronic “heart,” weapons, design studies and proposed variants, issues with service integration, deployments, the addition of a gun, squadrons and markings, NASA service, and much more. There are also six appendices, which provide the detail facts and figures of contracts, model numbers and differences, and more.

I don’t want to call it the complete book, but it is as close as I can imagine. I do, however, have a quibble, and from where I sit as both a reader and editor, it is not insignificant.

The title sucks. Fourteen words is entirely too long. The main title is very misleading. Its wording led me to believe that this was a book about all fast single-engine jet aircraft. If it was titled The World’s . . ., I would have immediately known it was the Delta Dart. As I noted in a previous review, it is my sense that marketing stepped all over this, and again, to the book’s detriment. I am not intending to re-title it, but I would more likely pick up something that read like Slashing Dart: The F-106 Story or its ilk than as titled.

A title should intrigue not be the whole story.

This book is worthy of your time and money.

Reviewed May 2017

The “Best” . . . Because There is Not Much Out There . . .

By fStop Fitzgerald | 27 May 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Martin Aircraft, 1909–1960

by John R. Breihan

Narkiewicz/Thompson, 1995. 208 pages.

This book is the definitive work on Martin aircraft. The shame of it is that there is only one to choose from and nothing to compare it to.

That said, the book is very good. Compared with other aviation company works, this touches all the bases. It involved significant research, which the author distilled into a very readable, yet still comprehensive presentation. It is well illustrated and cited.

My personal research concerns the MB/MBT series and I was looking to this to fill in some gaps. It provided a bit more detail, but was lacking in some of the information (and was opposed to) what I had found in the Library of Congress and National Archives.

All in all, despite its current high price, this is a good value and must-have for anyone interested in Martin aircraft.

Reviewed October 2013