Afterburner Book Reviews THE AVRO TYPE 698 VULCAN The Secrets behind its Design and Development By D W Fildes Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Books, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S Yorkshire S70 2AS, UK. 2012. 487pp. Illustrated. £30. ISBN 978-1-84884- 284-7. The previous Royal Aeronautical Society Chief Executive Keith Mans and I fi rst met on the fl ight deck of an Avro Vulcan B2 at RAF Oakington in 1967. It had been brought in to convince trainee multi-engine pilots that we should join No 1 Group of board to advice for model makers. It is a tremendous Above: Avro Vulcan B2. Bomber Command and Keith was suffi ciently smitten book for dipping into and for fi nding yet another Left: The fi rst prototype Avro to wax lyrical about the mighty delta. It would be ten serendipitous piece of fascinating information. I 698 Vulcan, VX770. All RAeS (NAL). years before I got to fl y the Vulcan and Keith was interviewed many of the original design teams in the right — it was a tremendous machine and one for 1970s and I propped up the bar with Roly Falk at which I have only the fondest memories. I nearly lost the 25th anniversary evening at Scampton in June a Canberra once — never a Vulcan, and the fact that 1981. But I never knew that some Avro bright spark it looked after a whole host of aircrew while being a proposed a target marker version in the 1951 Type primordial weapon of war spoke volumes for the fi rm 698 Design Brochure. Best of luck with that…. foundations on which ‘the fl atiron’ was built. The content and the price of the book are right. The content David Fildes’ overview of the design and Like a clever clogs I tried to fi nd some howlers to and the price development of the Vulcan is an obvious labour of point up but I couldn’t. of the book love. There have been some terrible ‘cut and paste’ I will leave the last word to Harry Holmes. “I histories of the Vulcan over recent years but as have no hesitation in commending this book as are right. Like soon as I saw that this volume had been endorsed the defi nitive work on what has become an icon a clever clogs by Harry Holmes, chairman of the Avro Heritage of aviation, the Avro Vulcan.” I couldn’t have put it I tried to fi nd Centre, I knew we were in safe hands. This isn’t a better and David will not write a better book. some howlers chatty read — rather a marvellous compendium of the evolution and chronology of the Vulcan from Andrew Brookes to point up but I the original specifi cation through every bit of kit on FRAeS couldn’t 44 AEROSPACE / JUNE 2014 THE HOVERCRAFT A History is covered in depth together with the emergence Above left: Saunders-Roe of a more practical approach to hovercraft design SRN.1 hovercraft, G-12-4. By A Hollebone Above right: Westland SRN.6, currently being carried forward by the British SR-N6-150, of Hovertravel, company Griffon Hoverwork. leaving the Southsea Terminal The History Press, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Without detracting from the good work that en route to Ryde, Isle of Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 2QG, UK. 2012. has been done by Ashley Hollebone to produce Wight. 189pp. Illustrated. £16.99. ISBN 978-0-7524- what must be the defi nitive work on the subject Below left: Britten-Norman 6479-4. Cushioncraft CC-2, CC2- of hovercraft, it is worth pointing out that there is 002, being fuelled at a BP an error on p 83 where the Rolls-Royce (formerly Service Station at Bembridge, Ashley Hollebone is a young author and his book Bristol Siddeley) Marine Proteus is identifi ed as the Isle of Wight. presents a comprehensive, well-researched and power plant used by Concorde. This is not the case Below right: Westland SRN.4 refreshing account of the hovercraft saga. The hovercraft, GH-2007, The as the Concorde power plant was the Olympus gas Princess Anne, of Seaspeed. book explores the origins of the hovercraft principle, turbine engine whereas the marine Proteus installed All RAeS (NAL). expounded with great enthusiasm by Christopher in the SRN.4 was developed from the Proteus turbo Cockerell, later Sir Christopher, that arose from propeller aero engine used to power the Bristol studies and experimentation by pioneers such as Britannia airliner. John Thornycroft in the late 19th century to reduce In conclusion, this book is highly recommended the water drag of boat hulls using some form of air as an important and thorough account of the lubrication. hovercraft in all its forms and applications. It In conclusion, A full account is given of the work done by stimulates much thought on the subject of human this book Christopher Cockerell with models and test rigs behaviour when faced with something new, in is highly to demonstrate the hovercraft principle and the this case resulting in something equivalent to the recommended development of the fi rst full sized hovercraft, the ‘railway mania’ that happened in Victorian times, and SRN.1 built by Saunders-Roe at East Cowes in what might have been if the hovercraft had originally as an important 1959, which led to an early proliferation of designs been seen as a unique transportation concept in its and thorough and the promise of a transport revolution and a own right rather than as a form of low fl ying aircraft account of the supporting industry to build hovercraft on the grand or helicopter. scale. This era of development was at its peak with hovercraft in all the construction of the SRN.4 Mountbatten Class Bob Wealthy its forms and passenger and car ferry hovercraft that remained in Solent Aeromarine Enterprises applications service for over 30 years on cross-Channel routes. The military uses of hovercraft were evaluated by the Royal Navy and Army for some years. However, it was left to the US, the USSR and China to exploit the benefi ts of hovercraft to support military logistics needs. The book is superbly illustrated with many photographs and artists’ impressions of a bewildering variety of hovercraft produced under government and industry funding and by amateur builders. The rise and fall of the hovercraft industry Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com JUNE 2014 45 Afterburner Book Reviews FLYING WITH THE LARKS The Early Aviation Pioneers of Lark Hill By T C Brown Spellmount, The History Press, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 2QG, UK. 2013. 200pp. Illustrated. £14.99. ISBN 978-0-7524-8989-6. When, on 16 October 1908, the fi rst recognised fl ight in this country took place, it was no more than a faltering and not altogether happy step forward. After that, another two years were to pass before an aeroplane operated by British Army personnel took to the air, in an exercise which was itself of limited value and with an aeroplane which was to play no further part in army aviation’s preparations to become a new and signifi cant factor in the war which by then was only four years distant. However, the location of those fl ights, Larkhill on Salisbury Plain, was to play a major part in those preparations, joining Farnborough as the other cradle in which the country’s infant air arm was nurtured. Those four years which remained before the outbreak of war saw the very birth of British Top: The Avro G being assembled at Larkhill in military aviation and it is a pity that the importance August 1912. of that period has not been refl ected in its literary Above: Test pilot Harry R coverage, at least in comparison with the great Busteed in the Bristol- output of books about the more obviously exciting Coanda Monoplane competing at Larkhill in events of the four wartime years. The appearance of August 1912. this addition to that coverage is therefore much to Left: Maurice Tétard fl ying a be welcomed, dealing as it does with a particularly Bristol Boxkite at Larkhill in historic site, hitherto sorely neglected but whose 1911. story, previously scattered in other more general All RAeS (NAL). works, has now been usefully gathered up in one account. This is not to say that the book is without its blemishes: there are a number of small but irksome errors, represented by either ‘typos’ or full-blown ... the location spelling mistakes, which argue less than attentive of those fl ights, proof-reading. If these are no more than minor irritations, there are also, more importantly, certain Larkhill on factual errors which ought not to have been allowed read on, it becomes clear that the list is intended to Salisbury to creep into a work which, in most respects, should be not the one indicated, but that of the offi cers of Plain, was to be serviceable to future students of the subject. the RE Air Battalion in 1911-12 — a very different Samuel Cody’s fi rst historic fl ight was made, not animal indeed. play a major as stated from Laffan’s Plain, to which he moved Although the presence of these errors is to be part in those only later on, but from Farnborough Common, some deplored, the work is clearly the result of much deep preparations, way to the east alongside the Farnborough Road and wide-ranging research and the author is to be joining and handy for the Balloon Factory, as it then was.