Fighters over the Fleet: Naval Air Defence from Biplanes to the Cold War by Norman Friedman (2016)

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I recently picked up a copy of this book. It looks like an interesting overview of the development of US and UK Naval Air Defence, told from the view of a Navy rather than aircraft expert.

For Secret Projects enthusiasts, there is more detail on the 1966/1967 VFAX competition with a few interesting drawings I've not seen before taken from proposal brochures at the US National Archives.

Drawings:

Boeing VFAX Model 959-001 - a low wing, twin seat VG design (3 view)
McDonnell-Douglas VFAX Model 199-302 - an interesting design between the VG F-4 and the Model 225 submitted to VFX in 1969 (2 view, artwork)
LTV VFAX - unnumbered study, similar to the V-484 but with notable differences in vertical tail and elsewhere (2 view)
Grumman VFAX - VG design (2 view)

 

[TomS]

Thanks for reminding me about this book. Looking forward to reading it soon.

 

[Antonio]

Are there any other unbuilt projects, either aircraft or ships?. I need a little help to decide before ordering ;-)

 

[DWG]

There's not a huge amount on non-built aircraft, but there is an awful lot of info to let you put design work in the context of the requirements and functions they were supposed to meet. For example there are big sections on early Cold War CAP requirements and the complications of trying to meet fairly onerous targets about not letting a mirror-imaged bombing threat get within launch range. CAP on deck couldn't reach intercept distance in the time from first detection, airborne CAP didn't have the endurance, and the carriers couldn't cycle them fast enough to keep them airborne. That kind of thing. Aircraft highlight for me was the description of the Outer Air Battle and what the A-6Fs were supposed to be doing during it (extra AIM-152 shooters) which I'd not seen clearly defined before, including the minor detail that a CVBG would need to put other ops on hold for a day to prep for a regimental strength Backfire raid. Of course it helps that Friedman was working for SecNav on precisely that at the time.

As an aside, I picked up my ebook copy ridiculously cheap (couple of pounds) in a recent Amazon sale, along with several other Friedmans. So worth keeping an eye open.

 

[Antonio]

As an aside, I picked up my ebook copy ridiculously cheap (couple of pounds) in a recent Amazon sale, along with several other Friedmans. So worth keeping an eye open.

I didn’t knew about that possibility. I’ll keep my my open for sure. Many thanks for your informative post