Afterburner Book Reviews the RACE for HITLER’S X-PLANES
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Afterburner Book Reviews THE RACE FOR HITLER’S X-PLANES Britain’s 1945 Mission to Capture Secret Luftwaffe Technology By J Christopher The History Press, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 2QG, UK. 2013. 226pp. Illustrated. £20. ISBN 978-0-7524-6457-2. This volume is a well-researched account of the ‘Fedden Mission to Germany’ which took place in June and July 1945. The Mission was led by Sir Roy Fedden and supported by other experts from the RAE and the aircraft industry. While the core of book is based on Fedden’s offi cial report, the account starts with a brief biography of Fedden himself and, throughout, it sets the itinerary of the Mission in context with the prevailing conditions in Germany, the attitudes of the German personnel who were ‘interrogated’ and the activities of Britain’s erstwhile Allies in the recently-ended confl ict. These latter were players in a great game of competing Above: The unmanned Junkers Ju88 Mistel 3A was guided to its target by the manned Fw190. Below right: The A4b was a winged version of the A4 or V-2. to gain maximum benefi t from the treasure trove of Bottom: Captured Messerschmitt Me163B-1a Komet, VF241, in RAF markings at the RAE. facilities, engineering artefacts, drawings and skilled All RAeS (NAL). personnel made available to them by the end of the war; each party was hell-bent on its own national lists of sources that were consulted, together with interest and any thought of co-operation with former a useful index of places, projects and personalities. wartime colleagues was consigned to the four This book is a mine of information and is thoroughly winds. recommended to students of the subject. If this Each of the ‘Targets’ visited merits its own reviewer was slightly surprised at anything, it account of the fi ndings made, with quotations of was a lack of credit given to British Air Technical opinions expressed by Fedden and other members Intelligence teams on the ground which had in of the Mission. The ‘Targets’ (mostly in Germany but effect sifted out the Mission’s list of ‘Targets’ in the latterly also in Austria) had mostly been identifi ed in weeks before it set out for Germany. Perhaps this the earlier weeks following the German surrender is explained by the absence of any credits to The by the Air Ministry’s Air Technical Intelligence teams, National Archives at Kew which holds much material which enabled the Mission to plan its activities in relevant to the subject, and is much nearer to home advance, albeit that it had not been possible to than the archives in the US that were consulted. predict the dislocations of German infrastructure [and Allied military bureaucracy] which greatly Phil Butler impeded the Mission’s travel from place to place. Affi liate Maps show the spread of the places visited. Many accounts are illustrated by relevant drawings, diagrams and photographs, and there is a wealth of background information on the technical detail of the fi ndings investigated, to put everything in logical context. Finally, an Epilogue outlines Sir Roy Fedden’s post-war attempts to design and produce cars and aero-engines. In a book of such wide scope it is inevitable that a few minor errors have crept in [e.g. the Curtiss P-60 was neither a jet aircraft nor the ‘Shooting Star’, and ‘Schräge Musik’ referred to upward- fi ring guns rather than rocket arrays] but these are insignifi cant distractions in a story well-told. The book is enhanced by an extensive bibliography and 44 AEROSPACE / MAY 2014 X-PLANES OF EUROPE Secret Research Aircraft from the Golden Age 1946-1974 By T Buttler and J-L Delezenne Hikoki Publications, 1a Ringway Trading Estate, Shawdowmoss Road, Manchester M22 5LH, UK. 2012. 302pp. Illustrated. £34.95. ISBN 978-1- 9021092-1-3. The 1946-1974 period covered by this book is indeed the golden age of experimental aircraft design and manufacture in Europe. All of the main research aircraft of this period are covered within the 302 pages of this book. A total of 38 aircraft are described, each representing the cutting edge in aircraft design from the British, French, German, Swedish and Swiss aircraft industries. As well as the well-known aircraft of the period, such as the Fairey Delta 2, this book also provides details of lesser known aircraft. One example being the Swiss Federal Aircraft Factory (FAF) Arbalete, which was intended to provide aerodynamic data for the development of the FAF N-20 fi ghter aircraft. Also described is the SAAB 210 which contributed fl ight data for use during the design and of two-page cut-away drawings of the Bristol 188, Above: Leduc O-10 ramjet development of the subsequent Draken supersonic Short SC1 and Fairey Delta 2. research aircraft on a Sud-Est SE161 Languedoc carrier fi ghter. The one drawback of these types of historical aircraft. The authors have provided useful information books is that it brings home the lack of aircraft Below: The fi rst Bristol 188, on the fl ight trial programme for each aircraft and development over the subsequent years within the XF923, at the end of its have also outlined any modifi cations the aircraft aerospace industry. One can only hope that this maiden fl ight on 14 April required during the duration of their fl ight trials. The may now be addressed with the development of 1962. All RAeS (NAL). contribution made by each aircraft to the aviation unmanned air vehicles and associated fl ight trial industry is also presented. The authors have also programmes. provided the reader with a good overview of the Overall this book gives a good account of the development of VSTOL (vertical short take-off and aircraft of the period; but, for the reader looking for landing) aircraft within Europe and present the a more detailed technical analysis of these aircraft different design solutions taken to achieve this goal it falls a little short. However, it does provide a by subsequent British, French and German aircraft suffi cient level of detail to act as a very good initial design teams. The book is both well written and reference source. illustrated by excellent photographs and colour line drawings (including hypothetical colour schemes Dr Malcolm Claus for the Nord Griffon II). Also provided are a number MRAeS Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com MAY 2014 45 Afterburner Book Reviews PROJECT TERMINATED Famous Military Aircraft that the three advanced interceptors (the Arrow, the Main picture: The Northrop North American F-108 Rapier and the Lockheed F-20 Tigershark export fi ghter Cancellations of the Cold War was abandoned in 1986 after F-12B), together with another two fi ghter projects three prototypes had fl own. and What Might Have Been (Republic XF-103 and the Convair F-106X), which Above: An artist’s impression are covered in less detail, should be viewed as of the Boeing X-20 Dyna By E Simonsen largely alternative, rather than as complementary Soar during launch on a Titan ICBM. c.1960. projects. There are also some interesting insights on Crecy Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading Estate, RAeS (NAL). the views of the major players involved with some Shawdowmoss Road, Manchester M22 5LH, UK. of the projects, such as North American President 2013. 224pp. Illustrated. £23.95. ISBN 978-0- Lee Atwood on the F-108 Rapier and the XB-70 85979-173-1. Valkyrie. The book This latest offering of the ‘what might have been’ While outline specifi cations are presented, is lavishly genre concentrates on ten military projects (eight there is little discussion of any detailed technical illustrated aspects or the risks associated with the advanced US, one British [the TSR2] and one Canadian [the — largely in Avro Arrow]) most of which made it to at least the technologies involved, for example the ‘exotic metal’ mock-up stage, although one, the Rockwell B-1B, heat shield on the Boeing X-20 spaceplane. In colour — with did eventually make it into service. Each project has technical risk terms the projects range from those, photographs a dedicated chapter, progressing chronologically such as the Arrow, which were test fl own over a and substantial from Northrop’s YB-49 fl ying wing bomber to the large proportion of their fl ight envelope, to the numbers of the Northrop F-20 fi ghter of the early 1980s. Where Rockwell XFV-12A supersonic V/STOL fi ghter relevant, the author extrapolates the story to the which never developed suffi cient thrust to lift author’s highly present day with, for example, a description of the vertically. The book is lavishly illustrated — largely in convincing Northrop B-2A as the ultimate descendant of the colour — with photographs and substantial numbers illustrations YB-49. of the author’s highly convincing illustrations of of how the The history of each project from the initial how the aircraft would have appeared in service, in military requirement, through the design process various roles and colour schemes. These include a aircraft would into full development, is ably described, together RCAF Arrow formatting on one in USAF colours and have appeared with the impact of the political, industrial and military a B-1B in RAF colours escorted by a Typhoon and in service, in factors which eventually lead to its termination. The a Tornado. various roles author’s conclusion is, in all cases, that termination was unwarranted and no substantial counter Colin Frazer and colour arguments are aired.