Afterburner Book Reviews THE ZEPPELIN

By M Belafi the prime movers. The Count was not an engineer or a pilot but learnt enough along the way to Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Books, 47 understand and fulfi l both roles. It also describes his Church Street, Barnsley, S Yorkshire S70 2AS, UK. philanthropic side; building a town for his employees 2015. 211pp. Illustrated. £30. ISBN 978-1-47382- with farming co-operatives and local infrastructure, 785-1. much of which survives today. The book is not perfect, as many of the hard There are numerous published histories of the found images are of poor quality and could easily Zeppelins and their missions in WW1 creating fear have been omitted. A few captions are wrong or on the ground but making little impression on that misplaced probably more to do with the publisher horrifi c confl ict. There are also many documentaries, or proof-checker than the author. The manuscript of varying accuracy, on the Graf Zeppelin and too credits a translator and is quite readable, though many sensationalist descriptions of the Hindenburg the English is often poorly structured but is at Lakehurst that public perception tends to think comprehensible by the attentive reader. The of those harrowing images as soon as the word narrative does cover some of the service Zeppelins ‘airship’ or ‘Zeppelin’ is uttered. but is far from comprehensive or even chronological This lavishly illustrated hardback covers none in places; picture placement often falls clumsily in the text and the fi nal chapter on the NT generation of this in detail. Its true value is the biographical Kaiser Wilhelm II, left, with content on Ferdinand von Zeppelin himself that Count Ferdinand Adolf merely brought the company history up to date at fi lls around 60% of the book. Sourced from the Heinrich August Graf von publication but renders it out of date within years as family and primarily German archives it paints Zeppelin, 1838-1917, on 29 modern advances still face uncertainty and change. August 1909. RAeS (NAL). a picture of an important family with regional However, if the reader has suffi cient coverage responsibilities, a colourful military past and the of the ship’s histories then, for the biography alone, battle to persuade German authorities to recognise it provides a thorough history of the man who added the potential of the Count’s dream of long-distance his name to aeronautical history. Perhaps Pen and aerial communications. It also highlights many of Sword should have titled it simply ‘Zeppelin’. the technical personalities gathered and cajoled by the Count to advise him and fulfi l that dream; too Peter Davison many books talk solely of the Count and Eckener as AMRAeS

A QUIET COUNTRY TOWN A Celebration of 100 Years of A Quiet Country Town covers the fi rm’s beginnings as an engineering concern, its move into Westland at Yeovil aircraft manufacture during WW1, then, between the By D Gibbings wars, highlighting the Wapiti, Pterodactyl, Lysander and on into war again. Post-War Chief Engineer The History Press, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Oliver Fitzwilliam and test pilot John Fay describe Gloucestershire GL5 2QG, UK. 2015. 192pp. the momentous decision to specialise in rotorcraft Illustrated. £16.99. ISBN 978-0-7509-6242-1. and licence produce Sikorsky . They separately give a fl avour to the fi rm, not overlooking To honour Westland’s centenary, David Gibbings Alan Bristow’s fl ying. Westland’s growing has compiled and introduced 29 short essays and experience with these American designs led to extracts from publications about the company, its them developing and fi nessing them to suit British people and products and its relationship to Yeovil. Westland Wessex HC2, requirements and then to building their own. XV723, airlifting a Rapier Other pieces deal with the urgent need for an Among the authors, which include David Gibbings launcher in April 1971. himself, the company’s former test pilot Harald RAeS (NAL). AEW Sea King during the Falklands confl ict, one Penrose features strongly and the other essays briefl y considers the politics behind the ‘Westland in this informative anthology are penned by those Affair’ while the superb tale of the 1986 Helicopter closely connected with the fi rm. Understandably World Speed Record is naturally not overlooked. most of these essays are concerned with It all makes an excellent read and is supported the company directly, yet the sweep is broad, by an appendix showing side illustrations of each encompassing the company’s famed designer W Westland type which are unfortunately reproduced E W Petter, Yeovil Town Football Club’s bid for the to a rather small scale. There are further appendices FA Cup in 1949, development of the Lynx and the containing 14 pages of photos and a bibliography cultural challenges of Anglo-Italian collaboration. Stephen Skinner but no index.

44 AEROSPACE / JUNE 2016 THE BATTLE FOR BRITAIN

Interservice Rivalry between the and , 1909-40 By A J Cumming Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA. 2015. Distributed by Eurospan Group, 3 Henrietta Street, London WC2E 8LU, UK. 233pp. £32.50. ISBN 978-1-61251-834-3.

The cover reviews of Anthony Cumming’s interesting The author must be congratulated on a truly I, L2163, book foretell his story. Three distinguished gentlemen amazing compendium of notes and bibliography of 210 Squadron, escorting a troop convoy to the Middle – a fellow author who believes in abolishing the stretching over 46 pages which will prove invaluable East. RAeS (NAL). United States Air Force as a separate force, another to historians. But, regretfully, he makes some key who is an authority on British aircraft carrier design assertions, not supported by research, to degrade and the third a worthy Professor who challenges the value of airpower. I will quote two examples. the champions of air power as to the value of an During ‘Operation Dynamo’, the evacuation of independent force competing for resources with the British and French forces from Dunkirk in 1940, Royal Navy for the projection of the UK’s defence Cummings states that Churchill “played down the interests. Anticipation is thereby averted. success of the Royal Navy to lavish praise on the RAF The vital question Mr Cumming poses to himself fi ghter pilots (overhead).” He ignores the fact that as author and to his readers is in the last sentence Admiral Ramsey, in charge of ‘Dynamo’ was a personal of the book: “What is the purpose of independent friend of Churchill, had his recorded support at the airpower?” He admits immediately before that time and that the statement by Churchill was made sentence that it is “.... (the) one key question (which) nine years later when he was writing volume two of needs a convincing answer.” I had anticipated his his tome The Second World War and realised the RAF answer to that question was the reason for his had not been properly praised for its contribution to authorship. Arriving at his concluding sentences I the success of the evacuation at the time. came to the conclusion that, while recognising the Secondly, Cummings states that in the Battle of need for unity of command in time of wars, big, or Britain: “Fighter Command was saved from extinction small, the RAF could serve the nation best as an by the reluctant inclusion of pilots trained in foreign independent force. air forces, who already had some combat experience.” But Mr Cumming does lay bare the thesis He fails to identify the ‘reluctant inclusion’, nor weigh propounded by Trenchard, founder of the Royal Air the reality that these gallant men were but 9% of the Cumming Force, later adopted by ‘Bomber’ Harris in WW2, of the strength of Fighter Command in the Battle, not that ability of air power to crush civilian morale by bombing: many British and Commonwealth pilots were already entered “to take war to the family hearth.” Immense devastation equally battle-hardened during the Battle of France. dangerous was caused by aerial bombardment in WW2 but, Cumming entered dangerous waters with his waters with neither in the UK, nor Germany, did civilian morale pen, but deserves praise for ‘having a go’. his pen, but crumble. But the thesis did become reality when the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then a Sir Kenneth Warren deserves praise whole nation, Japan, collapsed within days. FRAeS for ‘having a go’

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more detailed study of a particular topic. As indicated by the title, the focus is on aviation, although there is enough detail on spacefl ight for the reader to be suffi ciently informed in this area. The book is divided into four Parts. Part One explains the underpinning Newtonian physics but also sets the context of gravity within Einstein’s General Theory. This part also provides a limited assessment of the G loads expected with certain aircraft types and manoeuvres, although the anticipation of ever higher and multi-axis G loads in future platforms Physiological Effects and Staff Sgt Michael Keller takes is perhaps optimistic! a self portrait in an F-15E The second Part provides a comprehensive Countermeasures Strike Eagle during a local training mission over North review of gravitational physiology at 1G and at By D G Newman Carolina in 2010. increased G (with a passing nod to the problems of USAF. the giraffe’s long neck!). There is also a good review Ashgate Publishing Limited, Wey Court East, Union of the current state of knowledge of G-related Road, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7PT, UK. 2015. 246pp. musculo-skeletal injury. Illustrated. £65. ISBN 978-1-4724-1457-1. Part Three focuses in considerable detail on physiological adaptation to G exposure, refl ecting the author’s specifi c interests in this area. This topic High G Flight is the only textbook dedicated to the Highlighting the may become more pressing as the fl ight hours of applied physiology of the sustained acceleration improvements military pilots around the world reduce due to environment. At around 250 pages, with 30 fi gures, made in G budgetary constraint. it provides a highly valuable addition to the Part Four provides an up to date review of the aerospace medicine literature. protection, but physiology of anti-G straining, anti-G suits and Dr David Newman has drawn together a primer emphasising pressure breathing for G protection. Much of the on the essential physics, a review of the underlying that the job is original science behind acceleration protection was cardiovascular physiology and an exploration of the not yet done conducted on the 1940s, and the book achieves an various protective countermeasures against high G while the risk of important task of making this work accessible to a exposure that are used in both fl ight and spacefl ight modern audience. operations. G-induced loss It is not possible in a book such as this to refl ect The book works at two levels: it is entirely of consciousness the cutting edge of research but Dr Newman comes suitable for a reader who is new to the subject in fl ight remains, close. Highlighting the improvements made in G and is looking for a thorough understanding of the this book will protection but emphasising that the job is not physiological challenges associated with high G yet done while the risk of G-induced loss of exposure; at a deeper level it provides an essential fi nd its way consciousness in fl ight remains, this book will fi nd collation of the key references and sources of onto the shelf of its way onto the shelf of many applied aerospace evidence for the seasoned acceleration researcher many applied medicine practitioners. or aerospace medicine professional. With over aerospace 600 references quoted in the text, for many it will Wg Cdr Nicholas Green become the go-to acceleration resource, readily medicine MRAeS identifying essential further reading needed for practitioners RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine

46 AEROSPACE / JUNE 2016 HARNESSING THE SKY

Frederick ‘Trap’ Trapnell, the Vought F4U Corsair. shrewd pilot and offi cer who introduced a rational RAeS (NAL) and quantitative approach to assessing naval aircraft US Navy’s Aviation Pioneer, and subsequently applying the evidence, together 1923-52 with operational experience, to result in design change. By F M Trapnell Jr and Set against impending war in the Pacifi c, the D Trapnell Tibbitts book’s description of the rapid and competitive evolution of the Grumman Wildcat, Vought Corsair Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, and Grumman Hellcat was very interesting, MD 21402, USA. 2015. Distributed by Eurospan particularly the huge gamble taken in delaying the Group, 3 Henrietta Street, London WC2E 8LU, UK. iconic Corsair to allow a redesign. 238pp. Illustrated. £24.50. ISBN 978-1-61251- The iterative and central approach led by ‘Trap’ 848-0. and his fl ight test colleagues was unquestionably pivotal in the eventual success of the USN in the Harnessing the Sky is a fascinating narrative Pacifi c. His career was steep and perfectly timed spanning the conception and development of the for the war and, as well as numerous fl ying roles, of the US Navy told through the included aircraft carrier command. His one staff job career of an exceptional naval aviator – Frederick The book out of aviation included being part of the USN Task ‘Trap’ Trapnell. Group that sank the Yamamoto. ‘Trap’ started his fl ying career in the USN in is concise, The book is concise, thoroughly researched and 1923 on biplanes and airships when the maritime thoroughly well written with excellent descriptions of aircraft aviation role was merely spotting for naval gunfi re researched and performance and handling qualities, as well as and ended his career as jet aircraft and the aircraft well written covering the wider service and industry context. It carrier were positioning to be the prime method of also includes a rich and interesting set of notes with projecting US military power. with excellent numerous options for further reading. Overall, Trapnell’s unique role was as the USN lead test descriptions it is perfectly balanced for an entertaining and pilot empowered to evaluate and improve two of aircraft informative read for pilots, test pilots, aircraft generations of USN aircraft, establishing in the performance designers, historians and particularly new aircraft process the framework and culture that arguably programme managers. exists today for the evaluation of current USN and handling aircraft. Trapnell was a determined, skilled and qualities Tony Rae

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