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Hi All.
For the gent who asked about Early US Jet Fighters, the text and drawings start with the very first jets for USAAF and Navy, then three chapters covering USAAF All-Weather Fighters, Penetration Fighters and Interceptors, four more with Navy Night Fighters, Day Fighters, Long Range Escort Fighters and Interceptors, some one-offs (including the Curtiss flying boat fighter), and then the first supersonic types for each service. It is open to discussion of course, but I consider that the jet fighter in USAF and USN service reached maturity with the arrival of supersonic performance - the F-102 and F8U.
Essentially it re-covers the first two chapters plus a couple of other sections of American Secret Projects, but greatly expanded with new material from NARA College Park. In fact taking the date range - 1944 to towards the mid-1950s, there is not much missing now in terms of proposals to design competitions.
Book was handed over 10 days ago - I think the plan is to have it on sale for Duxford Flying Legends, which I think is July 13th. However, please don't take that as certain because there is plenty that can go wrong before then.
If anyone is interested, I am currently planning to be there.
Best wishes to you all, Tony.
Hi All.
This particular book is a one off to make use of a lot more information now available to, in the main, fill the gaps left by the first two chapters of ASP: Fighters. And not just designs - we found some good material at NARA on the USAF Penetration Fighter fly-off competition, while the British National Archives have reports made by A&AEE and RAE staff which also give nice little insights into what these early American jets were like. There is also some new flying boat fighter material and, as I think I said, the final two chapters look at the first supersonic competitions for the AF and Navy.
The Appendices also cover:
Appendix One. Air Force and Navy Combat Aircraft Test Bases
Appendix Two. American Fighter Aircraft Designers
Appendix Three. A Concept for In-Flight Refuelling
Appendix Four. What Were They Like?
Appendix Five. American Jet Fighter Engine Manufacturers
I guess that some of the Appendices cover items that were well known in the US, but not so much in the UK.
In my field now - UK and US Fighters/Bombers from the mid-1930s to the 1980s/90s - there is not much left to publish on unbuilt projects. What new bits and pieces I have will I think be better served by magazine articles. For example, I have recently submitted an article to The Aviation Historian on the Grumman Intruder design competition - here again an expansion of the coverage in ASP: Bombers.
Tony Buttler.
pometablava said:I agree 100%
I love books full of preliminary designs!
Hi All.
I have today received an advance copy of "Early US Jet Fighters: Proposals, Projects and Prototypes" and I must say that I am really pleased with the production and layout. I hope those of you who are interested in it will think so as well - I am guessing that the bulk shipment will be a month or so away as yet.
Please remember, this book covers some of the ground in US Secret Projects but in more depth and with plenty of new discoveries.
Tony.
Hi All.
My god - you guys are quick off the mark. I only heard yesterday (Monday) that the shipment had arrived from the printers last Friday.
I had an advance copy a few weeks ago and when I quickly checked through it everything looked pretty good. It was only when I had time to look more closely that I realised that some of the drawings were too small. When I did my proof reading and checking it was on a larger computer screen and they had looked OK, but on the page I can see that certainly in a few cases they are really too small, and the reproduction of copied discoloured originals has not been good with a couple of Goodyear efforts. Sorry guys - you can blame me totally for this - I should have picked up on it.
At this point, if you can highlight the worst half dozen please we might be able to enlarge them if we go to a second edition (but of course we need to sell the first edition to do that). I will just add another point here because the question of drawings being too small has been raised in the past with the Secret Projects series. Please don't forget that if you make drawings very large - say full page - then you have a high percentage of 'white paper' throughout the book with nothing on it, and other reviewers might not be happy with that. This can be OK for the specialist privately-produced books that for example Jared has done so well, but Crecy/Hikoki is a mainstream publisher and obviously has to be sure that the books will sell. It is in part a question simply of economics.
As regards the caption on page 141, my heart sank when I saw that had got through. It was of course an instruction and I think three other proof readers and myself all missed it. Once again, my apologies.
Looking at the artworks, that is an area about which I know relatively little but Crecy do like to put them in and I was asked to sort out a selection for turning into colour side-views. Unfortunately I do not know the colour scheme/camouflage/markings scene well enough to be sure I can pick up every error.
My thanks to 'gatoraptor' for pointing these flaws out (I hope there are not too many more waiting to come to the surface) and apologise for allowing them to get through. I hope they will not detract from the contents of the book.
Very best wishes,
Tony.
The 'F3D Skyknight' all-weather fighter in ASP was just plain wrong - that is I'm afraid the problem with using published sources when nothing else is available! In contrast the 1011 was detailed in original documents.
Also, I need to ask a question please. Does the membership think that 'Early US Jet Bombers' might be worth doing? There is some new material which has been discovered since ASP: Bombers was completed but nothing like the amount that has just gone into fighters. If I can find a lot more material for programmes such as MX948 then it might be worth considering, but it is you guys who pay the money and I need to get some opinions on this because the publisher is asking.
The book would be 3-4 years away of course, but personally I have my doubts.
Many thanks indeed.
Very best wishes,
Tony.
PaulMM (Overscan) said: