Dagger
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AHT does not ring a bell with me. What is the full title of that book?
Note the subtitle of Calum's book: Western Front Fighter Engine Development.
The Secret Horsepower Race by Calum Douglas (and piston engine discussion)
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Unfortunately there are no flightworthy Sabres. I know of only one which is being restored, a painfully slow and delicate process.
Mikulins inclusion in the form of a brief bio may seem odd given the title, however, given how much the Germans
studied the Mikulin swirl throttle, I judged he had a genuine role in the activites of the western front.
Three years ago I wanted to make the book about all engines from all fronts, but it became clear that to cover Russian
and Japanese engines to the same degree of depth as the German activities (which would be very justified considering
how little is written about them), would have required at least 2 more years and about £20,000 in research costs. I
did actually do a lot of studying on where Russian documents were, and was in quite advanced discusssion with
some Russian researchers about a trip. However, it became apparent that the cost would be prohibative, as
I would have needed to hire a local "fixer", and probably a technical translator, the Russian stuff is also
strewn across many unconnected archives, each of which have arcane access requirements. The main
archive of interest required they recieve a personal letter of recommendation from a senior Russian
civil servant... it all just got incredibly complicated. In Japan, none of the manufacturers answered my letters
requesting archive access, so I had to re-designate the book "western front", and get on with it.
Finally I had the time to grasp Calum`s book. I confess I was afraid that it would be more like a british perspective, but the author proved I was wrong, making it an unbiased abridging to this particular subject, just what I would love to see in such a book. I find it a superb work, packed with most useful information. Although much of the information he used is available (IWM Duxford cross my mind), no one before cared to compile this enormous ammount of data, fortunatelly organised in a timely sequence and with an engineers insight. I enjoyed checking the extensive "Notes and References", making this book a departure from everything else I`ve seen on aircraft engines. Kudos!
I am now looking forward to see Calum`s next work on turbochargers and, after that, I urge him to unite and further develop his massive archival stuff and come up with the definitive work on Luftwaffe aircraft piston engines, amassing serial, prototype and projected types. It would be a huge success.
I am now looking forward to see Calum`s next work on turbochargers and, after that, I urge him to unite and further develop his massive archival stuff and come up with the definitive work on Luftwaffe aircraft piston engines, amassing serial, prototype and projected types. It would be a huge success.
Thanks, I put in a lot of effort to trying to show that it wasnt about "British this... or Germans that..." but about how you manage engineers and resource them properly - and what goes wrong when those things dont work. Of course the culture of the nationalities do have some impact on how the try to work, but I think ultimately its about different groups of broadly-equally capable people in very different circumstances trying to do the same thing with different problems.
I was very worried that British would be angry with me for saying I thought it was a huge mistake to use carburettors and for other comments, or Germans upset with me for saying their engines were unreliable, and have angry americans after me for saying they didnt get things like controls right. I`m glad that (so far) people seem to be getting the argument that its not about countries, its about engineers under different circumstances.
I`m pleased you found the reference section useful, it was a gigantic effort to organize that during the writing process, and also the editing process.
Sorry I forgot to fully answer your question. Until the world rights-itelf again I dont think I`ll be able to write anything much as all the archives are shut. I am also not much of an expert on serial numbers and so on. However, I note your interest and will consider it in future. I need to spend another 2months in Germany to complete my activities there, at present this is not possible.
Although I am not an engineer, only an History teacher with a penchant towards engines, I would be more than happy to help pointing some blurred aspects regarding obscure German aircraft engine programs from Bramo, liquid cooled BMW's, KHD, Sachsenbergh, Auto-union, M. A. N.or KHD, as well as sources. I guess you will cover all German efforts in turbochargers in your upcoming book. BTW, do you confirm having those reports on Rheinmetall's Turbocharger? This is only mentioned in "Flugmotoren...", stating nothing else is known about it.
I have a tiny amount on the Rheinmetall stuff, to be honest my tactic there if I were to write something else would be to approach Rheinemetall-AG and inspect their archives. Being defence, this would be, I would say, most unlikely to be possible... but you never know (also I always wanted to see how main battle tank guns are machined...haha). Also, perhaps having one book "out" already might make future research applications in difficult areas easier.
Please be aware that the 2nd book isnt really about German turbochargers, althought some of the preview material I have made available gives that impression (my fault). I will have one chapter on German turbochargers, but it is an academic engineering textbook, it has a lot of mathematics, and only a small proportion of historical information. Its for engineers really. If you bought it I would say you might only find 15% of it useful. However, since it is a translation of Prof. Dr-Ing Kollmann's writings, a few people might I suppose consider it interesting just to read what he wrote.
I think the book you are wishing for, requires me to write a new one (i.e. a 3rd one)
Good luck on Rheinmetall`s archive, they do not have much to show on weapons development, and it was their most important department. I do not know more on this, but Dr. Leitzbach should help you.
On your upcoming book, do you intend to include photos? That would do the trick on me!
About your 3rd book, an hypothetical "Luftwaffe Piston Aircraft Engines 1933-1945", I take that Mortons would be more than happy to support you on this. Dan, what do you think?
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"I think the book you are wishing for, requires me to write a new one (i.e. a 3rd one)".
Sounds luvvly jubbly, myself. I suppose it would depend on the numbers involved but partial crowd funding might be an additional revenue stream/river.
Sounds luvvly jubbly, myself. I suppose it would depend on the numbers involved but partial crowd funding might be an additional revenue stream/river.
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The delay may well be due to the fact that our first print run sold out faster than expected. As soon as it became clear how fast they were going we commissioned a second edition, which was printed some weeks ago. We had hoped that this fresh stock would arrive before the very last copy in Amazon's US distribution centre sold out - but evidently that last copy has now gone and the stock is still in transit. Hopefully it will reach you soon.
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I sincerely hope you need more print runs too. That would be justice served.
That would not have been a popular substitution because Methanol was by that stage also short (and needed for MW50).
By June 1944 they were running engines in the test-cells on Propane, eventually even coal-gas (Leuchtgas) was being discussed for the purposes
of bedding in new engines.
It does not appear to have been mentioned in the RLM stenographic record, so I cannot comment upon it. (I have a digital copy of all the surviving RLM stenographic records, and can run keyword searches, nothing came up for "Ethanol", I`m not sure if "Ethanol" had some other designation at the time... or just isnt there).
I imagine making any more of any particular liquid fuel would only have reduced the yield of some other important fuel. Coal was not so much of a problem and Propane was (I think) mostly a byproduct of other refining operations, so a good choice for a liquid fuel substitute.
Dagger
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You could also try: Äthanol, or even Aethanol.
Another name for ethanol (in English) is ethyl alcohol.
In German that is called: Äthylalkohol, or also Ethylalkohol, or maybe also Aethylalkohol.
Von Braun's V2 rocket used ethanol as a fuel.
That ethanol for the V2 was produced by fermentation of large amounts of potatoes.
This was mixed with water, and sometimes also with methanol, and that mixture was called: B-Stoff.
The V2 originally was a Wehrmacht project, later taken over by the SS so probably there is nothing about that in RLM records.
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The books for Amazon US are due to get to the port by ship in the USA in the next few days. The trip takes 6 weeks, and the boat left 5 weeks ago.
If you have an email saying june 2021, its nonsense, ignore it. Sorry for the confusion, but please understand that I have absolutely ZERO control over what Amazon say or promise. Most of their systems are automated and have been sucessfully p****ing off customers of my book for months.
I have it on good authority, that all US Amazon customers ought to just get the book before Christmas. Amazon are, as far as I`m concerned, sewer rats, and only get the book because they have such a grip on distribution that even though they steal my royalties (by discounting the book by nearly a third), it still just about makes us more money than not using them due to their high market share.
I`m sorry for the long wait and the stupid emails, none of which make sense. Trust me, it will arrive in the next 3 weeks.
I'm glad you mentioned the V-2. A location that could provide the ethanol/ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen would be ideal. The following is from the bibliography of The German Chemical Industry.
"CIOS Report, Items 2 and 22, Files V-30 and XII-8, 55 pp. (1944); Brit. Abs. B1946, II, 309. Included is a description of the manufacture of detergents from Mersol, and from recovered and synthetic fats; production and transportation of liquid oxygen; compounding and processing of Buna rubber, especially for tires; chemicals from coke-oven gas; sulfuric acid, phosphates; miscellaneous heavy chemicals; fermentation products; ethyl alcohol for fuel."
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Just an FYI, I know you don't have any control over this. I was just whining about Amazon.
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Whining about Amazon yet inexplicably continuing to use them is illogical
Ray, it would be of much greater help if you please tell me:
A) Who you ordered it from
B) Where country you live in
Its vanishingly unlikley that changing the supplier now will get it there faster, as the books are all coming through the UK, so if you order one tomorrow from the publisher, the whole process starts again from zero in the UK. If you ordered from Amazon, I have explained above what the logistics and timelines are. My advice is to sit tight.
If you are in the USA, Amazon US were expecting to be distributing the book today, when the books didnt arrive (because the`ve only just landed at the port on the coast) their systems have panicked and send out the email you`ve just got. It will take about a week for the books to make their way from the port to the Amazon warehouses and then to be broken down and sent out. Conversly if you ordered NOW from the publisher, it will probably be 14days until it arrives at the very earliest, so I think no advantage to be gained.
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Received my copy yesterday. Wow!!! Outstanding work Calum.
Ordered (well pre-ordered actually) from Mortons. Am in Australia
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Half way through. Really enjoying it. I have a question though, at the bottom of page 114 there is a table. One of the columns is marked Ltot. What does Ltot mean?
Dagger
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The total length, incl. shaft, of the III and IV on pages 112 and 113 match the Ltot in the table,
but the RC-15 on top of page 114 does not. Its drawing indicates a length of 1973 but that seems excluding shaft. The table indicates an Ltot of 1923. Probably that's a typo and should read 1973, but even then it is not on the same basis as the others due to the exclusion of the shaft length.
It's not really important for the average reader who will simply conclude: the engines are roughly 2.5 meters long incl. shaft.
but the RC-15 on top of page 114 does not. Its drawing indicates a length of 1973 but that seems excluding shaft. The table indicates an Ltot of 1923. Probably that's a typo and should read 1973, but even then it is not on the same basis as the others due to the exclusion of the shaft length.
It's not really important for the average reader who will simply conclude: the engines are roughly 2.5 meters long incl. shaft.
I ordered from Amazon back in October and live in Wichita, Kansas, USA. There was an alternative source and the book should be in my hands sometime around Christmas. Thanks and I am looking forward to reading your book. I hope.
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So, I finally finished reading this! It took a few evenings... Note that I received a review copy of this book.
I should start by saying, I've enjoyed reading a number of books on jet engine development, but I've never read a book on piston engines before. While WW2 aircraft were my first obsession as a kid, I moved onto jets at a relatively young age, and am only now beginning to re-discover this era.
The Secret Horsepower Race is a very readable account of piston engine development on the Western Front in World War II. It's very well written, and proceeds broadly in chronological and narrative form through the pre-war period and the years of World War II identifying key people, events and technologies that influenced the technological development of piston engines in the various nations. It is impeccably researched and referenced, and includes detailed quotes, drawings and charts from source documents to back up Callum's narrative, while most of the major figures in the book are given a small biographical sketch for context.
The book consists of 480 pages, split into 10 main chapters in chronological order. There are copious drawings, photos and charts included, and endnotes give detailed references. There's a list of the archives consulted, and reading through the endnotes shows the immense breadth of research Calum put into the book. This book will be a standard reference for aviation writers engaging with World War II subjects in future, I am sure.
The coverage of engine types is most detailed on German and British engine designs. As Calum notes, some other nations (e.g. Italy) have less archival material available, and he also notes he intentionally covered American developments in less detail as there are already excellent published accounts of their major engine programs available. I also suspect the inclusion of more detailed US engine development history would have increased the page count beyond even the most tolerant publishers' limits.
The cover design is excellent, very dynamic and attractive, it makes you want to pick the book up from the shelves. The page layout is generally attractive, and the text well edited and proofread. Kudos to the Tempest Books team.
The text is laid out with two typefaces used to clearly differentiate between Calum's words and quotes from original documents. For me, as noted by a small number of other readers, the "distressed typewriter" typeface used for the quotes is a little harder to read than is ideal for a book of this length. It didn't affect my enjoyment of the book, and I get the design intention, but given the quantity and length of the quotations included in the book, I think the balance between design for "authentic period feel" and readability was a little off. Your mileage may vary.
In addition, I think that better use could have been made of the captions. Chris Gibson gave me some advice for my book on captions - that they should contain something interesting about the picture or drawing that you won't find from the main text. In many cases, the captions in this book simply tell you what the photo, drawing or chart presented is, but not why it should be interesting to a lay reader. Sometimes you can infer from the nearby text, but not always. So rather than simply say "Fuel evaporation curves from a DB 601 Engine", include a few words on what this chart illustrates for the non-engineer reader. This is especially important for those charts which are reproduced in German - as I often couldn't understand what the labels on the axes were, let alone what conclusion I could draw from the chart.
These are however very minor quibbles on an authoritative and deeply interesting book. 4 and a half stars out of five I look forward to Calum's next book with great anticipation, and also to future publications from Tempest Books.
I should start by saying, I've enjoyed reading a number of books on jet engine development, but I've never read a book on piston engines before. While WW2 aircraft were my first obsession as a kid, I moved onto jets at a relatively young age, and am only now beginning to re-discover this era.
The Secret Horsepower Race is a very readable account of piston engine development on the Western Front in World War II. It's very well written, and proceeds broadly in chronological and narrative form through the pre-war period and the years of World War II identifying key people, events and technologies that influenced the technological development of piston engines in the various nations. It is impeccably researched and referenced, and includes detailed quotes, drawings and charts from source documents to back up Callum's narrative, while most of the major figures in the book are given a small biographical sketch for context.
The book consists of 480 pages, split into 10 main chapters in chronological order. There are copious drawings, photos and charts included, and endnotes give detailed references. There's a list of the archives consulted, and reading through the endnotes shows the immense breadth of research Calum put into the book. This book will be a standard reference for aviation writers engaging with World War II subjects in future, I am sure.
The coverage of engine types is most detailed on German and British engine designs. As Calum notes, some other nations (e.g. Italy) have less archival material available, and he also notes he intentionally covered American developments in less detail as there are already excellent published accounts of their major engine programs available. I also suspect the inclusion of more detailed US engine development history would have increased the page count beyond even the most tolerant publishers' limits.
The cover design is excellent, very dynamic and attractive, it makes you want to pick the book up from the shelves. The page layout is generally attractive, and the text well edited and proofread. Kudos to the Tempest Books team.
The text is laid out with two typefaces used to clearly differentiate between Calum's words and quotes from original documents. For me, as noted by a small number of other readers, the "distressed typewriter" typeface used for the quotes is a little harder to read than is ideal for a book of this length. It didn't affect my enjoyment of the book, and I get the design intention, but given the quantity and length of the quotations included in the book, I think the balance between design for "authentic period feel" and readability was a little off. Your mileage may vary.
In addition, I think that better use could have been made of the captions. Chris Gibson gave me some advice for my book on captions - that they should contain something interesting about the picture or drawing that you won't find from the main text. In many cases, the captions in this book simply tell you what the photo, drawing or chart presented is, but not why it should be interesting to a lay reader. Sometimes you can infer from the nearby text, but not always. So rather than simply say "Fuel evaporation curves from a DB 601 Engine", include a few words on what this chart illustrates for the non-engineer reader. This is especially important for those charts which are reproduced in German - as I often couldn't understand what the labels on the axes were, let alone what conclusion I could draw from the chart.
These are however very minor quibbles on an authoritative and deeply interesting book. 4 and a half stars out of five
I look forward to Calum's next book with great anticipation, and also to future publications from Tempest Books.
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sgeorges4
I really should change my personal text
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started reading it tonight ,and I must say that I quite like the book ,does the author mind if I use the DB 628 me 409 picture for a what if model (I also intend to use J-C Mermet drawing of the bf 109 HV1 for inspiration) ? Going to be useful for my fw 190 C from hobby boss too
I cant really answer that until you expand on what you mean by "use". If you just mean do a tracing of it or something for your own use, then do whatever you like.
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