Afterburner Book Reviews HIGH-FLYING WOMEN

1. Madame La Baronne A World History of Female 1. 2. Raymonde de Laroche, 1882- Pilots 1919, the fi rst woman in the world to receive a pilot’s By A Pelletier aviators certifi cate. 2. Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Coleman, 1892-1926, the Haynes Publishing, Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset fi rst female pilot of African BA22 7JJ, UK. 2012. 192pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN American descent and 978-0-85733-257-8. the fi rst person of African American descent to hold an Alain Pelletier comments in his introduction that international pilot license. 3. Harriet Quimby, 1875- the man in the street would be hard pressed to 1912, was the fi rst woman name just three aviatrixes who have infl uenced the to gain a pilot’s license in the 3. 4. history of fl ying. Yet 70 or 80 years ago, names such US and the fi rst woman to fl y as Maryse Hilsz, Maryse Bastié, Amelia Earhart, across the English Channel. 4. Hélène Boucher, 1908- Jean Batten, Amy Johnson, Hélène Boucher and 1934, broke a number of Jacqueline Cochran were on the front pages of speed and altitude records. the leading newspapers. His mission in writing 5. Amy Johnson, 1903-1941, High-Flying Women was to retrieve them from was the fi rst woman pilot to fl y solo from England to Australia “the obscurity into which the passage of time has and twice broke the record for threatened to cast them.” London to Cape Town. It was an ambitious project, given that he was 6. Amelia Earhart, 1897- duty bound to research women pilots throughout the 1937, the fi rst woman to fl y solo across the Atlantic world and source the nearly 500 photographs, which Ocean. grace the book’s pages. As a result, it is a feast 5. 6. 7. Pauline Gower, 1910- for the eyes, equally a coffee table book and an 1947, left, and Jacqueline important addition to a researcher’s library. Naturally, Cochran, 1906-1980. Pauline established a joy-riding and it begins with the pioneers of powered fl ight and air taxi service in 1931 and works its way through categories such as the long- was head of the women’s distance fl yers, the fi ghting women and the icons. branch of the Air Transport There are also 50 detailed biographies, usually Auxiliary during WW2. Jacqueline broke many US of the most renowned of these courageous women. aviation records, was an It seems almost churlish to quibble with his choice, important contributor to the but there were several I had never heard of and, on formation of the wartime reading their achievements, would not have chosen Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women them in preference to others who were much more 7. Airforce Service Pilots deserving of inclusion. Sheila Scott is notably missing (WASP) and was the fi rst from the biographies, despite setting hundreds of woman pilot to go supersonic. records, including being the fi rst pilot, male or female, 8. Jean Batten, 1909-1982, broke many aviation records to cross the North Pole in a light aircraft. in the 1930s, including Given that the book is jam packed with facts making the fi rst solo fl ight and information, including extensive tables in the from England to New appendices, it is not surprising there are some Zealand. factual errors. For example, Lynn Barton was not 9. Jacqueline Auriol, 1917- 2000, earned a military pilot Britain’s fi rst airline pilot — several others beat her license in 1950, then qualifi ed to it, including Yvonne Sintes, a Captain with Dan as one of the fi rst female Air. The articles can seem like a long list of dates test pilots. She was among and records, which are not made easier to read by 8. 9. the fi rst women to break the sound barrier and set fi ve the layout. world speed records. But none of that detracts from the fact that this RAeS (NAL) except 3 and 4. book achieves its author’s stated aim of putting hundreds of female aviators back in the spotlight. Bravo, M Pelletier — an heroic effort!

Clare Walker CRAeS Former Chairman, RAeS Women in Aviation and Aerospace Committee

44 AEROSPACE / FEBRUARY 2014 TRANSATLANTIC BETRAYAL

The RB211 and the Demise of Rolls-Royce Ltd By A Porter

Amberley Publishing, The Hill, Merrywalks, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 4EP, UK. 2013. 157pp. Illustrated. £17.99. ISBN 978-1-44-560649-1.

This is a curious book, not least because the title gives the impression that Rolls-Royce no longer exists, whereas today it is Britain’s largest and most successful engineering company with a reputation for engineering excellence. The main thrust of the book is that Rolls-Royce and the RB211 were the losers in a ‘Faustian Pact’ (author’s phrase) between the Labour Government, with Harold Wilson as the main villain assisted by Wedgewood Benn, and the US administration to ensure that the UK Above: Cross-sectional were viewed favourably by the IMF from whom the drawing of the Rolls-Royce RB211 three-shaft turbofan Labour government required a huge loan. for the Lockheed TriStar. The fi rst two thirds of the book are a rather September 1968. disjointed run through the history of jet engine Right: A Rolls-Royce RB211 development in Britain up to the 1960s mostly in one of six newly-built test beds at Derby. April 1969. derived from already published books and available Far right: The fi rst production sales documents and adds nothing new of Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofans signifi cance. It is clear that the author, for whom no at Derby ready for delivery to CV is given, has a very limited technical ability. The Lockheed. February 1972. Below: Rolls-Royce RB211 errors or misunderstandings in this section are too during fl ight test on Vickers numerous to mention. Where he seeks to impress VC10, G-AXLR frequently throughout whereas the Conservative by quoting from a technical paper it is clear that the RAeS (NAL). administration, under which ‘The Demise of Rolls- equation he has extracted from it is wrongly written Royce Ltd’ actually occurred is never mentioned. and he has not the ability to recognise the error. Finally, the description of the contents on the The fi nal third of the book details the campaign back cover of the book include the statement to win orders for the RB211 in the US but it is “Andrew Porter tells the story of the RB211, the an extremely one-sided account referring almost history of its development and the political and exclusively to the DC-10 aircraft — very little economic factors that saw the company nearly mention is made of the Lockheed TriStar. Again die.” This is just not true — none of these items most of the information comes from magazine are covered in the book which in essence stops in articles and secondary reports — very little 1968 just when development of the engine and the from primary sources — and far too much is the associated problems leading to the demise of Rolls- author’s speculation with little supporting evidence. Royce Ltd in 1971 had just started. To illustrate the point Porter, in support of his This is a poorly written, technically incompetent, ‘Transatlantic Betrayal’, quotes from March/April extremely biased and incomplete account of a 1968 issues of Flight magazine on the choice of signifi cant story in British aviation history which the GE CF6 by United and American Airlines rather deserves much better treatment. Fortunately the than the RB211 in the DC-10, yet completely real story of the development of the RB211, its ignores a long article in the 4 April issue of the problems, including the politics and economic same magazine which loudly proclaims Rolls- factors has already been written by Phil Ruffl es who Royce’s “winning of the biggest single export order spent his entire career at Rolls-Royce, from junior by any section of British industry.” This was for 124 engineer to Director of Engineering, dealing with RB211-powered Lockheed TriStar aircraft; in the the RB211 and the various successful derivatives event Lockheed sold considerably more TriStars of it. It is due to be published by the Rolls-Royce than the version of the DC-10 for which the RB211 Heritage Trust. was suitable. Further evidence of bias is the fact Alec Collins that the Labour government is condemned FRAeS FIMechE

@aerosociety i linkedin.com/raes f facebook.com/raes www.aerosociety.com FEBRUARY 2014 45 Afterburner Book Reviews US GUIDED MISSILES The defi nitive reference guide By B Yenne

Crecy Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading Estate, Shawdowmoss Road, Manchester M22 5LH, UK. 2012. 254pp. Illustrated. £22.95. ISBN 978-0- 85979-162-5.

Since WW2, most major post-war guided missile programmes in the USA have received the ‘M for Missile’ designation in the nomenclature system introduced in 1963. The M designator was mainly assigned to programmes begun before 1963 but still active. These included some inactive programmes, and all USA programmes since. There are 175 designations described in the main body of this book, starting with the MGM Matador and fi nishing with the MQM-175 (EADS Do-DT45) aerial target vehicle. It also includes some UAVs, notably the BQM-147 Dragon Drone and the PQM-149 UAV-SR, but not systems like the Predator MQ-1 or the Reaper MQ-9. In the three Addenda the author covers: ‘classic’ missiles, the B-62 Snark, B-63 Rascal and the B-64 Navaho which he thinks were signifi cant programmes; ‘Operational Anti-Missile Missiles, the Sprint, the Ground-Based Interceptor and THAAD; and the ‘R for Rocket’ designation (for those non-guided missiles produced since 1963). North American XSM-64 and related material. However, the book does not In four Appendices the author lists most other Navaho surface-to-surface go beyond this aim and the author has worked well missile prior to launch at the USA-produced missiles outside of the ‘M for within this boundary. With, on average, three ‘M Missile’ system, that is, those before 1963. The Airforce Missile Test Center, Patrick Air Force Base, designations’ being made every year, it will not be fi fth Appendix is reserved for acronyms. The author Florida, 9 November 1958. long before a second edition will become needed. describes THAAD as being deployed to South The programme had been Korea in 2009 to assist the monitoring of North cancelled in July 1957. Tim Marshall RAeS (NAL). Korean missile testing; this effectively acts as the FIMechE most current information contained in the book. The author has at least a paragraph on each M designation, even if it means describing a programme that never reached any sort of maturity. On the other hand, he devotes four pages to the It is diffi cult AIM-9 Sidewinder and eight pages to the BGM-109 to believe Did you know? Tomahawk. It is here that the impressive imagery, that today, in excellently reproduced in this high-quality reference military aviation book, is lavishly and interestingly displayed. The On Thursday, 30 May 1940 — at the time of the major depth of detail about each type may be thin, but literature, there Dunkirk evacuation when the fall of France was imminent and the invasion of Britain appeared likely — Harold Rox- the encyclopaedic nature adopted by the author are any gaps bee Cox [later to become Lord Kings Norton] delivered the make this publication a must-have among historians, wide enough Royal Aeronautical Society’s 28th Wilbur Wright Memorial enthusiasts and modellers — if an M designation for a defi nitive Lecture entitled ‘Prolegomena for a Detailed Study of the isn’t within this compilation, it probably didn’t exist. Future of British Civil Aviation’, the meeting being held guide but I at the Institution of Electrical Engineers. “Convinced that The details successfully whet the appetite for ultimately the aeroplane will bring about a world under- further research. believe the standing …” Captain J L Pritchard, the Society’s Secretary, It is diffi cult to believe that today, in military author has has previously advised Orville Wright by telegram that the aviation literature, there are any gaps wide enough subject of the lecture “was deliberately chosen at a time detected one when the aeroplane is being so grievously misused.” for a defi nitive guide but I believe the author has Although the Society’s wartime lecture programme detected one and fi lled it successfully. He covers and fi lled it was much curtailed, the Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture the ‘M-for Missile’ range, with some other interesting successfully was delivered each year.

46 AEROSPACE / FEBRUARY 2014