Product Description
The study of the Luftwaffe during World War II is still of enormous interest to aviation enthusiasts and modelers. While much has been published on the subject, this, the first of two volumes, will assert a strong claim to be the definitive study of that most complex and fascinating subject, the Luftwaffe's colors and markings.Ken Merrick has researched this area for 20 years and has uncovered much new information which is published here for the first time. The detailed text provides evidence to challenge a number of previously accepted theories. This volume will contain over 300 photographs, many in color, as well as diagrams and artwork. The research has included contact and liaison with the companies that made the actual paint applied to Luftwaffe aircraft, and the book will include color paint chips specially prepared from these original formulas. For modelers in particular, this degree of accuracy wil be invaluable. Among the topics covered in this volume are paint composition, civil registrations, factory registration marks, unit codes and badges, the balkenkreuz and the hakenkreuz. Aircraft featured include day fighters, those used in training, liaison and reconnaissance units and helicopters. The second volume, which is in preparation, will deal with other major categories of aircraft, including bombers and night fighters. Detailed appendices cover other areas such as paint specifications and werk nummer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

When 83 equals 64
The scholarship of Kenneth Merrick as seen in his latest work, "Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1933-1945 Volume I " has gotten better but there is still ample room for improvement. In this latest book he actually identifies some of the sources upon which opinions about late war Luftwaffe camouflage are based instead of having us take his word for it. Not only are new documents and color photos cited, but also arguably the most solid evidence that exists - the remains of the actual planes of the period - in their original paint!

Merrick's earlier "Official Monogram Painting Guide" of 1980 was a marvelous work in its day and for years afterward. The authoritative but circumspect style of Merrick with his coauthor Hitchcock gave us confidence that the color chips presented therein were based directly on paint samples from actual aircraft that he had seen and recorded first hand. Paint variations and lack of available documentation may have led him to present a full six different shades from green to brown for color RLM 81, but this need not faze the reader, assuming rigorous research methods were followed. We took his word even though he and Hitchcock did not, as professional researchers should have, historians or archeologists, provided a thorough, specific list of the aircraft on which his conclusions, e.g. the color chips, were based.

His latest book reveals that we should not have trusted him so unquestioningly back in 1980 and should probably be wary even now. The reasons are the same as before. He (and any other aspiring authority on this matter) needs to be much more thorough in citing his sources and more forthright in explaining his information assessment techniques. As an example, we now find out that the color scheme of a rudder of a Bf 109 K in the current work is really gray and dark green whereas it was claimed to be brown and dark green by Merrick in 1980. The color in the color print from back then indeed looks brown and not gray. But there should not have been any mistake made here. The artifact still exists and it should have been a straightforward matter (although airline tickets can be expensive) to actually examine the object in person or at least talk with the owner. Likewise, in the 1980 work, it seemed to be inferred that one or two He 162's still existed at the time in there original paint in Canada and were available for examination. The undersides of these plane look in photographs to be an exceptionally paler blue than the standard RLM 76. The clear deviation of this color from the standard could have been firmly documented by a personal visit 30 years ago. Even now it is not clear to what extent the data of the author is actually first hand, which is not to say all data must be so. The reader wonders whether the author in fact personally examined an important wreck of Fw 190A recently found near St Petersburg, Russia. Maybe he did. He does not tell us.

Merrick gives us a plausible rationale that RLM colors 81,82 and 83 were resurrected versions of colors from the 1930's before the war. Sounds interesting. Sounds possible. He also claims that these shades were for the most part strictly and consistantly formulated, variations in hue or shade being mostly due to thickness of application and the nature of the underlying surface. However, he does nothing to support his case, when in the example of the Aussie Bf 109, he identifies multiple shades of `standard' colors like RLM 75 and 02 on the airframe and then says they don't match the documented standard even though other effects played no role. So - the colors are different, but they are the same. Sounds a bit hazy. Although color photographs can be deceptive, he does not explain convincingly to the careful reader why RLM green 82 on Me 262's look consistently more deep and bluish than it does in color photos of the He 162, Me 163 or of certain Fw 190's. Moreover, RLM brown 81 is also seen to vary. In color photographs of Bf 109's, including his own featured in his book, the brown is consistently lighter in appearance than the specified dark chocolate hue found on other aircraft. Merrick also identifies RLM 81 as being the darker shade on some color photos of Me 262 prototypes that many readers will easily interpret as a dark olive. The colors RLM 81 and 82 do appear to be generally consistent with the standard Merrick sets for them. However, in contradiction to Merrick's claims, existing evidence suggests that detectable, systematic variations commonly occurred as was the case with American camouflage colors.

I in many ways like the book (although some of the color prints could be a lot better). And though I would recommend it to anybody interested in Luftwaffe camouflage, the main questions I would still indelicately ask of Merrick are these:
Of the extant artifacts that may reveal the the nature of late war Luftwaffe camouflage which ones have you actually studied in person? Identify them please. What system do you use to assess and record their colors? What about using spectral analysis or other scientific methods to record data on the actual artifacts? Specifically, what were the things you got right and wrong about the color chips of 1980 and why? Perhaps he will eventually answer these questions and hopefully do so in print. If he does a good job of it he will not just be an `apprentice' researcher as he now considers himself, but a researcher indeed.

I love the color chips
I bought this book because of the color chips that come with it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of photos and camouflage schemes, too. I have not read any text yet though.

The definitive guide, and well worth it, but...
As a longtime Luftwaffe modeler, I had been anticipating this release for quite a while and was not disappointed. First, what it is not: it is not a book filled with beautiful profile paintings and color artwork showing the authors interpretations. He leaves that up to you and your library.

What it IS is an exhaustive scholarly work which examines every available relevant document- including long lost supplemental paint chips for the desert colors and late war greens- and attempts to order the previously confused world of Luftwaffe colors with logical arguments and reasoned speculation. It is also a source of the best real German paint chip color charts you are ever likely to see. Three are included in this volume- two exact replicas of 1936 and 1938 charts and one unexplained RAL and auxiliary colors chart. These chips match not just the chroma and value but the pigment formulations and reflectivity of the original formulations.

Sprinkled throughout as illustrations of the authors arguments are also the best selection of Luftwaffe wartime and recent wreck color photos you're likely to find, and reproductions of original documents including splinter scheme diagrams (and a Ta152 drawing explaining to leave the undersides unpainted- leading to a very clear explanation of this practice). So far we're 5 out of 5, and have already earned the price of admission.

Very very briefly put, Merricks conclusions are well reasoned, expertly honed, and sure to irritate some know-it-alls. As such it is essentially conservative- in a good way- in that he presents the colors as they were and claims they didn't vary much (with a couple of key exceptions like RLM 76 getting paler). According to him for example RLM 63 was an RLM 02-like gray but paler and that was that. Sometimes it looked darker and sometimes lighter depending on application conditions. 65 was 65. There was one consistent late war green-blue.

There is a radical bombshell hidden in his work, though, which may forever change the way we look at late war colors, and that is that they were simply a reintroduction of the deleted prewar 61, 62, and 64 (being 81,82, and 83 respectively) as tested (along with '02) by JG54.

WHAT? You mean I've got too many paints on my hobby bench? While the paint chips make this argument visually persuasive once brilliantly pointed out, it is still a speculation on flimsy evidence which you'll just have to trust Merrick on. And I personally defer to his expertise 95% of the time.

Fascinating tidbits abound: early Bf109B's in transparent zinc chromate primer, Royal Blue Ju88's with black and sand-yellow "arabesques", Messerschmitt "house color" gloss gray-blue RAL5008(which is found, unannounced, on the auxiliary colors chip chart).

Main downside which kept me from giving an unqualified 5 rating: organization! This is a reference work which is difficult to use as a reference work. It is meant to be read for comprehension. But how about a page explaining each color chip chart? No, you have to wait until they come up in the text (p.26, 35, and ???). What color was a Ju86P? Well, it's on p.122, but you'll just have to remember that because there's NO INDEX. How about a timeline? Etc. I found myself taking notes of useful information, because I know it will be very difficult to find again later.

I was also disappointed that the entire subject of interior colors takes up only a 3-page appendix, although there are other scattered references if you can find them. There are also many references to colors which will appear on chip charts in volume 2, so you really should invest in both volumes. Maybe an index for both volumes will appear there as well.

Overall recommendation: buy the darned thing. It will be the standard work of its type for decades and will increase in value better than your retirement account, if for the paint chips and primary documentation alone. Be prepared to be in awe and a little frustrated. Buy a book like Sundin's "More Luftwaffe Fighter Aircraft in Profile" for inspiration, and this one for understanding. And dear fellow modelers, be prepared to look at that beautifully crafted work on the shelf and now "know" it's all wrong. But, with the latest expert understandings in this book, your next one will be magnifique.
... Read more

Product Description
The Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) develops, acquires, and maintains most Air Force systems and is tailoring its workforce to adapt to changes in technology, weapons, and battlefield requirements. This volume is a practical guide to the main steps in analytical workforce planning and development: determining workforce demand, describing workforce supply, comparing the demand with the supply, and implementing solutions. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Following World War II, the onset of nuclear weapons, long-range jet bombers, and ballistic missiles radically changed American foreign policy and military strategy. The United States Air Force, led by men of far-sighted vision and uncommon dedication, accepted the challenge of organizing and leading a massive research and development effort to build ballistic missiles.

In the quarter of the century since, these weapons have constituted one of the tree legs of the strategic triad, the basis of America's strategy of deterring nuclear war, yet they have received less attention from the public and within the Air Force than the more glamorous manned bombers of the Strategic Air Command or the missile-launching submarines of the U.S. Navy. This volume attempts to correct the imbalance by telling the story of development of Air Force ballistic Missiles.

It concentrates on the first generation of ballistic missiles: the intercontinental Atlas and Titan, and the intermediate range Thor. Although the effort to develop rockets has a longer history than commonly assumed, the modern history spans the relatively short era from 1945 to 1960. During this brief interval, missiles advanced from drawing board to alert status, where the next generation now remains poised to deter war. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An incredibly blunt accounting of early military aviation
A "politically incorrect" accounting of the efforts of a few forward thinkers of early military aviation.Brings to life all the hurdles they had to jump in spite of the politicians and anti-aviationmilitary leaders, just to survive and prove the concept. Brings all themilitary and civil aviation history I have studied for the last 32 yearsinto focus! Sadly, it's not much different this very day !! David AHatcher, CW4 US Army Retired and a USA Civil Service Aircraft FlightInstructor at Fort Rucker, AL

A revealing study of politics vs. professionalism.
As an Air Force "brat" who grew up with the names and places related in this book, I thoroughly enjoyed discovering the reasons behind the views privately expressed by my officer father and his cohortsregarding certain political personages and the other branches of theservice.This book also went a long way toward explaining the seeminglySpartan, but completely functional, aspects of USAF aircraft.And now Iknow something of the men whose names were given to many of the USAF baseshere in the US and abroad.In the Overview of the book, mention was madethat this was to be the first of two books; does anyone know the title ofthe second?

Pretty Good Read about US Army Aviation
Contrary to the other reviewer, this is a pretty good account of the political struggle for US Air Power and the strong personalities that shaped it. I don't get the PC criticism here. It is sort of like complaining that Julius Caesar didn't have enough women in his legions and therefore his Commentaries are lacking because of this. Acutally, women played a bigger role in the rise of flight than in most technologies in the first half of the 20th Century. The folks in this book knew that and supported them

A thorough, revealing overview of the between-war Air Corps.
Dewitt Copp provides us with an in-depth account of the growth of the Air Corps from the era of the Wright brothers to just before the advent of World War II.All the movers and shakers are spotlighted along the way, and the political intrigues they found themselves in are described in detail. As Mr. Copp comes from an older generation, it's easy to forgive his relegation of women to secondary roles, especially since the chauvanism of the time all too often kept them there. I found the book a rewarding read, and would recommend it with enthusiasm to anyone interested in that part of our military history.Because of the scope of the work, the readingat times becomes bogged down in the fine details of events as they transpired.Be prepared to work your way through it ... Read more

Product Description
The development of aircraft carriers and carrieroperations sparked a revolution in military affairs, changingcompletely and irrevocably the prosecution of war at sea. Previousstudies and histories of carrier aviation have focused on just one ortwo factors, such as individual leadership or advances in aviationtechnology, to explain the development of carrier forces. By contrast,this new history compares the development of carriers and carrieraircraft by two very different navies to illuminate the many factorsthat effect the adoption of new military technology.

Focusing on the critical years after World War I, the authors tracethe personal, organizational, and institutional elements that movedthe U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy along different paths of aircraftcarrier development and operations. In a clear, almost conversationaltone the authors draw on years of research to explain why and how theRoyal Navy lost its once considerable lead in carrier doctrine andcarrier aircraft development to the Americans in the years after 1919.

Originally asked to produce a study for the Office of the Secretary ofDefense that would maximize the value of decreasing defense fundsthrough wise investment in new technologies, the authors revised andexpanded that work after a wide-ranging, international search forpreviously unused primary sources. This new effort offers bothcompelling history and a trenchant essay on how and why militaryorganizations adopt and develop revolutionary technology. Itsunconventional approach should appeal to readers interested in modernnaval history and in revolutions in military affairs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The complexities of weapons development
Hawaii was the first place ever to feel the force of a massed attack from a fleet of aircraft carriers. How such a weapons system came to be is the subject of "American & British Aircraft Carrier Development."
The authors say this is not ancient history, nor inside baseball, but it really is ancient history. There were six carrier-to-carrier battles, and there will never be another. Carriers are still valuable as floating, mobile airfields, but the old arguments about the carrier's place in the fleet are obsolete.
"Our conclusions . . . bear on the present," the authors say. They do not say what weapons systems of today they are thinking of, but likely candidates are Aegis antiaircraft missiles, Star Wars and aircraft carriers themselves.
This book came out of a Pentagon study, which it reveals in being about twice as wordy as necessary. The authors are Thomas Hone, an instructor at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces; Norman Friedman, a prolific author on military topics; and Mark Mandeles, head of a military policy think tank and a former instructor at the American Military University.
They conclude, to their own surprise, that the conventional history of the evolution of aviation at sea is far from complete or correct.
The carrier methods adopted by the Americans were regarded as successful, those adopted by the British unsuccessful. (The Japanese followed a path similar to the Americans' -- with two major differences -- but little documentary material is available on that navy.)
Again and again, say the authors, the decisions made seemed reasonable at the time. Even building more battleships was reasonable in context, though carriers superseded the battleships in usefulness in the Pacific War.
The big problem facing naval aviators was the extreme vulnerability of carriers. Battleships are built to dish it out and to take it. When operating as designed, as part of a battle line, they were virtually invulnerable to air attack in World War II, unless misplaced in restricted waters.
Because one or two smallish bombs can knock a carrier out of action, its defense is a good offense. The side that got in the first strike was expected to prevail.
This was the case at the Battle of Midway, though not at the Battle of the Coral Sea. However, the authors end their inquiry in 1941, infuriatingly leaving the debate hanging in midair, when most of the questions were resolved by events.
Carriers certainly were vulnerable. By the end of 1942, almost all the fleet carriers in the world had been sunk or damaged -- including all six of America's big flattops.
The British, taking a more cautious approach, had armored their carriers' flight decks. But that meant carrying fewer than half as many combat planes as a U.S. Navy carrier of similar size.
The British also insisted on storing all their planes within the protected hangars. Through a complex series of what-ifs, clearly analyzed by the authors, this decision meant that the British went to war with obsolete carrier aircraft.
This, however, was not merely because the Royal Navy had lost control of its own air arm in 1921. Hone, Friedman and Mandeles agree that America was fortunate to block the formation of an independent air force in the 1920s and '30s, but they find that it was not the existence of the RAF alone that hamstrung the Royal Navy's aviation.
In the end, they find that the more open American political society was an advantage. Even relatively junior Navy officers (junior meaning rear admirals and occasionally captains) had access to Congressmen, heads of industrial companies, newspaper editors and pressure groups.
Nowadays, that would be called the military-industrial complex, and we are supposed to despise it, but it served America well, say the authors, in the runup to World War II.
By contrast, the highest aviation planning body overseeing the Royal Navy was occupied largely by titled incompetents during the '20s and '30s.
Furthermore, only one Royal Navy officer concerned with aviation was permitted to present the Navy's case to the government.
The authors find that personal, institutional and organizational systems work together to create a climate that does -- or does not -- allow creation of a successful new weapons technology. On the individual level, they give pride of place to American Adm. Joseph Reeves, who proved in 1926 that carriers could deliver heavy strikes.
This whole issue has been muddied over the years by a number of untenable assumptions that have become enshrined in history books.
Worst of all is the common belief that Army Gen. Billy Mitchell was right about strategic bombing and the future defeat of the battleship by the airplane.
He was wrong twice. Battleships were vulnerable to planes, in limited circumstances, but neverto the kind Mitchell wanted the nation to have.
Though Navy aviators fought Mitchell and won, they agreed with him that aviators should command aviation forces afloat. No historians, including Hone, Friedman and Mandeles, question this concept, though World War II proved it to be wrong.
The most effective carrier commander was Adm. Raymond Spruance, whom the aviators despised as a member of the "Gun Club." But in truth, Spruance completely understood the concept of getting their "fustest with the mostest," as Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest said; while also protecting the main mission.
Spruance was not an aviator, but he never lost a battle. Adm. William Halsey was a go-for-broke aviator, and by following the Mitchell offensive line, he lost the greatest naval battle in history. The fact that the Japanese failed to cash in after Halsey was maneuvered out of action has obscured that event (the Battle of Leyte Gulf).
Not many aviation enthusiasts -- and Hone, Friedman and Mandeles are among their number -- are going to admit that Halsey was a failure in high command, but it is a surprise to find them rating the Japanese Zero as a superior weapon.
In their book, they have something to say about recruiting, training and keeping pilots, but not much. The Zero's superior performance was obtained at the price of pilot protection.
Hone, Freidman and Mandeles do realize that modern naval battles are wars of attrition. The Japanese strategy of preserving cheap airplanes at the cost of expensive pilots was a war-losing decision.
U.S. Navy pilots had parachutes, self-sealing gas tanks, radios and some armor plate. Even if they lost a battle with a Zero, they had some chance of living to fly again.
The Zero pilot had none of those things, and had to triumph completely every time. This cannot happen in a war of attrition, so eventually the last Zero pilot was killed.
Except that the British won the argument at the end. As a fighter, the Zero was a loser. As a kamikaze, no one could stop it as a bomb delivery machine.
In the Okinawa campaign in 1945, the American Navy was losing a carrier every week or two to kamikazes, and it had only about 15 to start with. The British carriers, by that time serving with the U.S. Fifth Fleet, were hit many times by kamikazes, but unlike the American flattops, they were able to keep operating.

Good insights, poor organization
There are many good insights and much worthwhile information here.But there is no apparent organization of ideas, either among the chapters, within a chapter, within a page or sometimes within a paragraph.Ideas and facts are presented, and repeated later, as if this were several slightly different articles on the same subject laid end-to-end.We are told about the movie "Helldivers" at least twice, for instance, and both times it is introduced as if new; and many times it is repeated that the Royal Navy did not have an institutional way of resolving technical aviation issues, while the USN had an interaction among BuAer, the War College and Fleet exercises.This repetition (in a book of only 200 pages) masks the fact that there is not really a book's worth of information here, and that and the poor organization mean that many important questions just aren't brought up (like, just how were the personnel policies for Naval Aviators decided?What actually were the options considered at various points in time?).It also masks some flaws in logic: the authors are fond of saying that the interwar navies were like cash-strapped gamblers in a casino, who could not afford to lose, and so spread their bets evenly.Apart from the implicit assumption that a rich man can afford to lose everything, this is an excellent way to military disaster, making onself weak everywhere; and it is not explained how refusing to make a choice among options is actually making a choice.Neither is the book particularly well-written; in too many places I had to go over again a sentence or paragraph, trying to figure out just what the authors were trying to say."Related to the concept of cost is that of risk"--immediately after two paragraphs apparently discussing risk.This book might be useful to find some facts and ideas not otherwise immediately available; or, I would hope, as an inspiration for a more thorough and organized study.--CDR, USNR, ret.

a well-done history
Britain started out ahead, but partly for that reason her carrier forces (and especially planes) were less suited for combat than America's. This is an excellent study of how that came to pass. Sadly missing is an equallyinsightful look at the Japanese carrier fleet, which in the winter of1941-42 was arguably the equal of America's.

Just what the title promises :)
An intelligent and thoughtful study of how it happened that the UnitedStates started late, yet managed to enter World War II with a bettercarrier force than the Royal Navy. (In part, this was because the US *did*start late, and therefore didn't have an installed base of obsoleteequipment.)

The only problem with this book is that it doesn't give equaltime to the Japanese carrier fleet, which as it happened was America's onlyreal competitor in this developing science. ... Read more

Product Description
A must-have for anyone interested in Jimmy Carter, NASA, space policy, Cold War, 1970s. Well written, well researched, easy to read. Great companion to any space history and politics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

NASA history of the 1970s - EXCELLENT
This is a long overdue book for those interested in the history of NASA during the 1970s. The author, Mark Damohn, really catches the spirit of the times.The book is very well written and obviously a lot of research went into this book. The book is primarily about Jimmy Carter and NASA, which from an academic standpoint nothing has ever been written about. Back Down to Earth dramtically shows the relationship between the White Hose and NASA during an important transition time in NASA's history between the Moon Landings and the building of the Space Shuttle. This book is a must for anyone interested in NASA, space policy and the history of the 1970s. It is a book that is an easy read for the interested general public and book that will be respected by those in the academic community. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Aeronautics, Military; Aeronautics; Submarines (Ships); World War, 1914-1918; Submarine boats; History / Military / World War I; History / Military / Aviation; Technology ... Read more

Product Description
This tour d'horizon book reviews airport regulation and competition in different regions of the world and contrasts different policy perspectives. Organized in four parts, the first three examine, in turn, Australasia, North America, and Europe, while the last section looks at the institutional reforms that have taken place in these regions. The book covers the regulation of airports, and competition in different regions, as well as privatization policy, the interaction between airports and airlines, and regional economic impacts. It also examines the linkages between governance structures and forms of regulation. The book's global sweep embraces all the large aviation markets, bringing together the ideas and challenges of academic economists, airlines, airport managers, consultants and government regulators. As well as looking at different methods, degrees and paradigms of regulation it also spells out the stress-points, in a way that makes essential reading for airport operators, airline operations staff, as well as academic economists concerned with transport studies.It also offers interesting reading and important lessons for those concerned with regulation of the utility industries such as, telecommunications, water and power generation and distribution - where infrastructure can be subject to natural monopoly characteristics and where firms competing in downstream markets are dependent on the investment and operational strategies of the upstream infrastructure operator. ... Read more

Product Description
The YC-14 was an experimental aircraft, developed between1971 and 1977, by The Boeing Company and sponsored by the U.S. Air Force.Its basic mission was to carry large, bulky payloads into and out ofshort, rough dirt fields 2000 ft long, even if an engine failed. Designedto replace the C-130, it had considerably more capability, with a largefuselage designed to carry the largest tanks, trucks, and vans in use. TheYC-14 configuration had a high wing and large T-tail, with the flow fromthe 50,000 lb thrust turbofan engines exhausted over the top of the wingand passing over the upper surface of the flaps. The flow was turned bythe flaps and deflected to augment the aerodynamic lift of theconfiguration. It was the most efficient powered-lift system everdeveloped.

This case study takes you step by step through the request for proposalprocess, the trade study and configuration development, detailed designand construction, and ground and flight tests. The effects of politics,management, and personalities on the project are also addressed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

marco
i love je ... Read more

Product Description

An essential new account of some of the most valuable research and development in international military history.

Roy F. Houchin II shows how the roots of US Air Force hypersonic research and development are grounded in Army Air Force General Henry H. 'Hap' Arnold's identification of the need for advanced airpower weapon systems to meet the anticipated postwar enemy threat. The technology for a smooth transition to military spaceflight seemed within reach when Bell Aircraft Corporation executive Walter Dornberger (the former commander of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket research) made an unsolicited proposal to William E. Lamar (the chief of Wright Aeronautical Development Center's New Development Office of the Bomber Aircraft Division at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH) for a hypersonic boost-glide weapon system.

Visionaries like Arnold, Dornberger, and Lamar believed a hypersonic boost-glider would represent the ultimate expression of the US Air Force's doctrine by performing strategic bombardment and reconnaissance more successfully any other type of vehicle. As this aspiration reached maturity in Dyna-Soar, the service's leadership never gave up their beliefs. This book shows how the struggle to persuade the secretary of defence and his advisors, who did not share the Air Force's vision for a military spaceplane, illustrates the ebb and flow of an advanced technology program and its powerful legacy within American society.

Product Description
In this definitive study, J. D. Hunley traces the program's development from Goddard's early rockets (and the German V-2 missile) through the Titan IVA and the Space Shuttle, with a focus on space-launch vehicles. Since these rockets often evolved from early missiles, he pays considerable attention to missile technology, not as an end in itself, but as a contributor to launch-vehicle technology.

Focusing especially on the engineering culture of the program, Hunley communicates this very human side of technological development by means of anecdotes, character sketches, and case studies of problems faced by rocket engineers. He shows how such a highly adaptive approach enabled the evolution of a hugely complicated technology that was impressive--but decidedly not rocket science.

Unique in its single-volume coverage of the evolution of launch-vehicle technology from 1926 to 1991, this meticulously researched work will inform scholars and engineers interested in the history of technology and innovation, as well as those specializing in the history of space flight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Superb History of Rocket Technology in America
Every few years a benchmark study appears on some aspect of space history that reinterprets our understanding of the subject. J.D. Hunley, whom I freely admit is a longtime friend and colleague, has published--along with two additional volumes on the history of rocket technology in the United States, "Preludes to U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology: Goddard to Minuteman III" and "U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology: Viking to Space Shuttle"--a major study of the history of U.S. rocketry. "The Development of Propulsion Technology for U.S. Space-Launch Vehicles, 1926-1991" is Hunley's magnum opus and will hereafter provide the starting point for studying this subject.

This book accomplishes three critically important tasks exceptionally well. First, it fills what is unquestionably a tremendous gap in the literature of space launch. There is no single book or even a small collection of books where anyone may find a comprehensive history of rocket technology. Most of what is available is superficial, such as Frank Winter's "Rockets into Space" (Harvard, 1990), or concentrates on specific launch systems, such as David Stumpf's excellent book, "Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program" (Arkansas, 2000). Hunley's work is a cohesive whole that analyzes that story much more even-handedly and effectively. It will undoubtedly become the standard resource on this subject.

Second, it does a superb job of tracing the main lines of development of the major rocket technologies. Much of the existing literature overemphasizes the contributions of the German rocketeers under Wernher von Braun, and while they were clearly important, almost as important were influences coming out of Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, often through the Aerojet Corporation, along with many other companies, institutions, and universities.

Third, Hunley explores in some detail the process of innovation. We know too little about the origins of these launch technologies, coming as they do from large, anonymous organizations. But he illuminates decisions and direction in technological development that have never been explored before. His work is a benchmark in the process of the invention of spaceflight and its evolution over time. He employs the concept of "engineering science" to the subject of rocket technology, noting that at least until very late in the development of American rocketry, there was fundamentally no body of theory that would allow engineers to predict how new technologies would function in the harsh environment of launch and operations in space. Engineers would design a rocket and encounter problems in static or flight-testing (or both) and then had to undertake cut-and-try methods to correct problems. This happened repeatedly, and the various shuttle accidents, as Hunley demonstrates, points up the magnitude of the problem. In this way what engineers did was hardly science in the sense that they developed a body of knowledge that would allow prediction of how these machines would operate.

There is much to praise and little to criticize in this fine volume on the history of U.S. rocket technology. I am proud that this fine work appeared in the "Centennial of Flight Series" at Texas A&M University Press which I have edited since its inception.

Reliable and balanced account
In the October 2008 issue of _Technology and Culture_, Yasuchi Sato wrote about this book: "The first two chapters provide a reliable and balanced account of the development of all major space-launch vehicles, military and civilian, flown up to 1991." He adds: "The rest of the book goes into details of the evolution of specific propulsion technologies. . . . This book," Sato concludes, "is based on Hunley's total mastery of the literature in relevant fields. Both primary and secondary sources are so vast that integrating and synthesizing them is no small feat. Moreover, as Hunley points out, the sources are often inconsistent. Thanks to Hunley's critical examination of the sources, this book will be a valuable reference for historians of American space programs." ... Read more

Product Description
This book covers the inception, growth and employment of Britain's airborne forces (parachute and glider-borne formations) between June 1940 and March 1945.It takes a comparative approach and follows tailored lines of development. Each of these lines - politics and policy, equipment and technology, personnel and training, command and control and concepts and doctrine-influence each other.

Product Description
Accounts of the developments of the fighter, fighter/bomber, reconnaissance, and night fighter versions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Me-262 Overview
I called this an overview because while this book has many excellent photos (some in WW2 color, others of a beautfully restorted Me-262), the author gives a general background of jet development, the difficulties in getting this jet into service.

There are plenty of line drawings of all aspects of the plane, statistics and data for those interested in such details. The book itself is first class - glossy paper, great photos - especially of the factories before and after the Allied raids as well as photos of the hardened shelters the Germans were building to protect the factories from air raids.

Crowood Aviation Series has a book on the Me-262 with a little more narrative (by David Barker), but the photos in the book are what makes this one a great buy. I appreciate both technical and artistic aspects, which is why I bought both! If you have to choose one, it would boil down to whether or not you prefer facts/stats over photos and color. Both books are good. I lean towards this one.

Excellent!
This book is not only historically accurate, but easy to read as well, with many original photos and illustrations. Like already said, it's a 'must have'.
However, if you are more interested in operational use of the Me262 you could be dissapointed. This work is more about prototypes and airframe variations: no savage dogfights in here...

Excellent in depth study of the Me 262.
This is a 'must have' book on the Messerschmitt Me 262.Lots of new photographs. Outstanding color photos - excellent text.Every page something new. ... Read more