Book Reviews COMPLEX SYSTEMS ENGINEERING Theory and Practice. Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics series Vol 256 Edited by S Flumerfelt et al

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reston, VA. 2019. xviii; 282pp. Illustrated. Distributed by Transatlantic Publishers Group, 97 Greenham Road, London N10 1LN, UK. £116 [20% discount available to RAeS members on request; E [email protected]]. ISBN 978-1-62410-564-7.

Systems engineering is a relatively recent engineering discipline, becoming established during the 1950s and has a heritage closely associated with the defence and aerospace sectors. The fundamental problem addressed by systems Above: The Test Lab for the engineering throughout its history has been the Orion space capsule. development and management of whole systems in Right: Next generation tooling techniques and a highly a way that ensures coherence of the whole system skilled workforce perform and maximises benefit to stakeholders. Through together to produce the F-35 the history of systems engineering the challenges Lightning II at Lockheed addressed have grown more complex with the Martin’s mile-long factory in development of systems and, more recently, closely Fort Worth, Texas. Lockheed Martin. coupled systems of systems, intended to achieve more ambitious outcomes, and integrating wider ranges of things and actions within the bounds of single systems. The result is complexity in systems and the situations in which they are deployed, rather than just the complicatedness of the large systems which systems engineering was developed to address. During the past decade the systems engineering community has discussed the impact of the qualitative difference between complicatedness and complexity and methods of dealing with complexity have been emerging. This multi-author book contains chapters which characterise the nature and challenges presented by complex systems as they are currently The reader encountered in the system development and will find this is management environment. These chapters are a book about useful to inform readers of which of the various interpretations of complexity, out of the several in approaches the systems engineering community, the authors of to deal with this book are using. complexity The latter two-thirds of the book comprises but there is chapters explaining particular approaches to pretence that the book provides a specific method addressing aspects of complexity which have been no pretence to deal with complexity. developed. The chapter authors are contributors to that the book the subject matter of their chapters. These chapters provides a Timothy Ferris develop specific facets of complexity and discuss specific method Senior Lecturer, Centre for Systems and Technology approaches for addressing those aspects. Management, The reader will find this is a book about to deal with Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the approaches to deal with complexity but there is no complexity Shrivenham

44 AEROSPACE BLUE STREAK Britain’s Medium Range Ballistic By J Boyes

Fonthill Media Limited, Millview House, Toadsmoor Road, Stroud GL5 2TB, UK. 2019. 240pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN 978-1-78155-700-6.

John Boyes has written a very readable description of the genesis, evolution and ultimate demise of the Blue Streak. This was Britain’s attempt to keep up with American and Russian ballistic missile development. Potential purchasers should be aware that the book is in two major parts: only the first 60% covers Blue Streak; the second part covers Skybolt as the planned alternative once Blue Streak had been cancelled. The book starts with a description of the political and technological context, especially the fractious UK-US relationship during the 1950s and 1960s. There was recognition from the early 1950s that bombers with free-fall weapons were unlikely to be able to penetrate Soviet defences beyond 1965. The viable alt