Book Reviews AMERICAN SECRET PROJECTS 2 and 3 US Airlifters 1941 to 1961 By George Cox and Craig Kaston

Crécy Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading Estate, Shawdowmoss Road, Manchester M22 5LH, UK. 2019. 303pp. Illustrated. £27.50. ISBN 978-1-91080-916-7. US Airlifters since 1962 By George Cox and Craig Kaston

Crécy Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading Estate, Shawdowmoss Road, Manchester M22 5LH, Above: A C-2 Greyhound civil B707. Moving on towards the 1960s saw many UK. 2020. 256pp. Illustrated. £27.50. ISBN carrier on-board delivery efforts to produce a better airlifter, by using as much 978-1-91080-933-4. aircraft from the Providers of Fleet Logistics Support as possible of civil designs, as well as going for more innovative solutions, resulting in the Lockheed C-141 These two volumes (published by Crécy) complement Squadron (VRC) 30 prepares to make an arrested landing which employed the same fuselage cross-section as Vol 1 of the series which dealt with fighters and on the flight deck of the the C-130. Other designs were aimed at producing bombers of WW2 and two previous publications by aircraft carrier USS Nimitz greater lift, VTOL capability and even supersonic Midland which dealt with post-war combat aircraft. (CVN 68). US Navy. cruise. The first volume begins with a brief history of US The final chapter of Volume 2 deals with a number airlifters and then outlines the specific requirements of proposals to meet the light airlifter needs of the US of the genre, including the ability to load large Army, which included adaptations of civil designs and heavy items onto a spacious cargo deck. While the fairly conventional new designs, as well as STOL and requirement for substantial airlift capability first VTOL proposals. came to the fore during WW2 this was largely met Volume 3 continues with the attempts to produce by adapted civil designs, most famously the Douglas a more effective strategic airlifter, capable of carrying C-47, although the first purpose designed projects outsized loads, while faced with budget constraints, did appear in prototype form. It was in this era when which pushed constructors once again to draw on the requirement tended to divide into tactical and existing civil types and even for Boeing to propose strategic, with the latter projects including influences a design utilising the wing of the B-52. However, it from strategic bombers, as well as the burgeoning became clear that a new design would be required long-range civil market. and a series of competitions and proposals followed, Some more exotic approaches were also which eventually resulted in the Lockheed C-5. attempted, such as flying wings and canard designs, At the other end of the scale the pursuit of which reappear several times during this story. Several a VTOL capability spawned a myriad of designs other innovative approaches were also proposed, and proposals, including some unsolicited, which including swing tails and gull-wings to ease loading, produced some prototypes but no production items, turboprop and turbojet propulsion, as well as pod for the army support role or for the larger air force carriers, although none of these reached production. Hercules replacement. Efforts in the latter case were The tactical requirement did result in a few to continue, with emphasis moving away from VTOL successful designs, notably the Fairchild C-82, These books to STOL and, after multiple proposals, resulted in a which were evolved over several iterations. However, display competition between prototypes of the Boeing YC-14, by the mid-1950s, a competition between several utilising the Coanda effect, and the Douglas YC-15 manufacturers to provide a medium-lift capability outstanding employing externally blown flaps. resulted in the award of the contract to Lockheed editorial However, a further change of emphasis saw for the C-130 Hercules. The strategic requirement standards, resources being switched to strategic lift, which, after followed a similar progression, with perhaps more including many rejection of derivatives of the C-5 and the Boeing 747, effort to draw on civil designs, which resulted in the eventually produced the McDonnell Douglas C-17, Douglas C-133, although longer-term success was pictures and which is currently in service with the USAF and several minimal compared to the C-130. diagrams, many foreign air forces. Meanwhile, efforts to modernise During this period the requirement for a tanker/ of which are the tanker/transport fleet again saw the rejection of transport to support SAC’s bombers also emerged but attributable to optimised designs in favour of the cheaper solutions despite several optimised tanker proposals, budget of modifying a civil design, to produce the KC-10A and time constraints resulted in the Boeing KC-135, the originating and the upgrading and re-engining of the existing which drew heavily on cross-fertilisation with the companies KC-135s.

56 AEROSPACE One of the longest chapters charts the history There is also a chapter that deals with the many of Carrier On-board Delivery (COD), starting in the projects based on the C-130 Hercules, including 1950s, involving a myriad of designs employing much various test beds, stretched and wider fuselages, of the V/STOVL techniques examined elsewhere but STOL variants with a selection of propulsion options, with an equal lack of success. Alternatives of adapting including rockets, and even a flying boat version. existing carrier-capable types and modifying civil The final two chapters deal with the emerging airlift designs, including the Boeing 727 and Fokker F-28, requirements and the technology likely to be available were also proposed over the decades but with only to meet them, although actually not that much has limited success. changed since the 1960s. The need for a special The following chapter looks at proposals to operations V/STOL capable airlifter, incorporating use large airlifters as strategic missile launchers, stealth features, has generated many proposals, the use of nuclear propulsion, span-loaders, pod without actually producing any hardware “at least as carriers and other innovative approaches, that have far as is known”. yet to achieve success. Another chapter addresses These books display outstanding editorial the problem of out-sized loads, originating with the Royal Australian Air Force standards, including many pictures and diagrams, need to transport the large rocket boosters used (RAAF) movements personnel many of which are attributable to the originating from No 23 Squadron load in the US Moon programme. One of the proposals a C-17A Globemaster prior companies. There are also numerous tables of involved the use of the wings and other components to it departing RAAF Base technical data, and performance information, although of the British Saunders-Roe Princess flying boats, Amberley to participate in much of this is also contained in the text. Finally, both while another bizarrely employed two sets of wings Exercise Shaken Fury in the books are rounded off with a comprehensive glossary, US. and engines from Douglas DC-7s. Later efforts Commonwealth of Australia 2021. a reference bibliography section and indexes. saw the use of a Boeing 747 to transport the All-in-all, the authors should be congratulated for Shuttle and of transport aircraft to launch rockets completing what must have been a monumental task. carrying satellites into orbit. The latter has had some success, including the launch of satellites from a Colin Frazer Lockheed L1011 TriStar. AMRAeS

SUKHOI Su-25 By Yefim Gordon and Dmitriy Komissarov

Crécy Publishing, 2020, 496pp, £44.95.

In 1970 the Soviet armed forces badly needed a modern ground attack aircraft to support their ground forces. Two of the famous Soviet design bureaux made proposals: The Ilyushin OKB with the Il-40 and the Sukhoi OKB with the Su-25. The Su-25 was chosen as the winner and made its first flight in 1972. Sukhoi Su-25 of the Moving on, the book describes the aircraft’s Following further development, the aircraft went Russian Air Force landing at involvement in various battlefield actions and Vladivostok. Leukhin Fedor. into service in 1980 in support of the Soviet forces then discusses its service with the various export in Afghanistan, having been identified by NATO and customers. Finally, in a number of comprehensive given the reporting name ‘Frogfoot’. Subsequently the appendices, the authors list the details of every aircraft was also exported to a number of nations in single aircraft produced, together with the accident Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle attrition data. East, with more than 1,000 aircraft being produced. This is a ‘big’ book in every sense of the word. It has seen active service in a number of different It has 500 pages, measures 29cm x 21cm x 4cm, theatres, including the recent Russian involvement in and weighs 2.5kg! Despite this, it is a very readable Syria, and is still in operational use today. book, which contains a lot of fascinating detail The book under review, which is the latest in and more than 600 photographs and drawings. It the ‘Famous Russian Aircraft’ series, studies every is probably unlikely that anyone would sit down to aspect of the life of the Su-25 in great detail. ...as a ‘go to’ read the book from cover to cover but, as a ‘go to’ Starting with a review of the competition, it then reference book reference book on any aspect of the Su-25, it is describes the testing and development of the on any aspect unbeatable. aircraft, before giving a very detailed view of the aircraft structure and the wide variety of weapons of the Su-25, it is Sir Donald Spiers that the aircraft is capable of carrying. unbeatable CEng HonFRAeS

MAY 2021 57 - Book Reviews JOHN HOUBOLT The Unsung Hero of the Apollo Moon Landings By William F Causey

Purdue University Press, Stewart Center, 504 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 49707-2058, USA. 2020. xxiii; 347pp. Illustrated. $29.99. ISBN 978-1-55753-946-5.

Have you ever watched an hour-long TV programme and thought to yourself that the story could have been told in half the time? That’s how I felt by the end of this story about one of the design decisions that led to the success of the Apollo Moon landings. NASA put together the first rough estimates of how John Houbolt at NASA’s centre in Langley, much it would cost to put men on the Moon in 1959. Virginia, became the main promoter of LOR within There was not much detail behind the estimates but, NASA and persevered in detailing its advantages in general terms, they assumed that a rocket would in the face of opposition from many quarters, not fly from the Earth direct to the Moon and then return least from von Braun. The main factor that eventually – the concept popularised by Jules Verne in From Above right: Lunar orbit persuaded the critics to adopt LOR was that it allowed the Earth to the Moon (1865) nearly a hundred years rendezvous (LOR). Jooja. the Apollo mission to be undertaken with a single Above: Earth, Moon and the earlier. It was recognised that there might need to ascent stage of the Lunar launch of a rocket whose development was just be a variation of that involving two or three launches Excursion Module Eagle, about affordable. This reduced the development time from the Earth in order to assemble the giant Moon in lunar orbit after return to within the timeframe set by President Kennedy ship before leaving Earth orbit – a variation that was from the Moon and before (“before the decade is out”), as well as holding down felt to be within the (very wide) error margins of the rendezvous with the Apollo 11 Command Module the costs. Von Braun and others were eventually estimates. Columbia. NASA. persuaded by these cold hard facts to accept LOR, The idea of assembling a Moon ship in orbit leading to the Saturn V rocket and the Command around the Earth was promoted by Wernher von Braun Module/Lunar Module architecture of Apollo. who, as head of NASA’s centre in Huntsville, Alabama, We will never know if NASA would have switched led the development of America’s largest rocket to the LOR approach without the advocacy of John motors. Building on his experience with the V2 in Houbolt. It is certainly possible that the schedule Germany during WW2, he developed first the Jupiter C and cost implications of the alternatives to LOR rocket that put America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, into would have eventually led hard-nosed NASA orbit in 1958 and then got the go-ahead to develop managers, such as George Low and Joe Shea, to a heavy lift rocket that would eventually become the adopt it anyway. However, Houbolt’s actions as LOR Saturn V used in the Apollo Moon missions. His vision ‘champion’ clearly helped. was to have a space station orbiting the Earth that The book’s subtitle (Unsung Hero of Apollo) is would be a factory for assembling spaceships bound something of an exaggeration, since many histories for the Moon, Mars and beyond. of Apollo have described Houbolt’s efforts to have The Jules Verne and the von Braun approaches LOR adopted as the basis for Apollo. In this book, the both required landing a large vehicle on the Moon’s By early 1960, details of numerous meetings and reports described surface, containing a rocket motor powerful enough a US industry by the author tend, if anything, to hide the wood for to escape from the Moon’s gravity along with the team at the trees, with the result that Houbolt’s contribution necessary rocket fuel. Working backwards, the gets somewhat lost. The story stops in 1963 once size of the rocket leaving the Earth would have to Chance Vought LOR has been accepted by NASA, so that the be enormous. By early 1960, a US industry team Corporation remainder of Houbolt’s career and life is left untold. at Chance Vought Corporation (working on a (working on The subject of LOR is curiously timely given self-funded study) had shown a way to significantly a self-funded current attempts by the US to return humans to the reduce the size of the required rockets: park the main Moon’s surface by 2024. Meeting that schedule spaceship in orbit around the Moon and send a small study) had affordably is forcing NASA to look at alternatives ferry down to the Moon’s surface. The ferry would shown a way to the baseline approach (that would use a vaguely later return the astronauts to the mothership for the to significantly defined Lunar Gateway) including assembly on the trip back to Earth – this part involved rendezvous of reduce the size Moon’s surface and assembly in Earth orbit, as well as the ferry and the mothership in orbit around the Moon. the proven LOR approach. Plus ça change. The whole scheme eventually became known as the of the required Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) concept. rockets Pat Norris CITP FRAeS

58 AEROSPACE