Typhoon to Typhoon:RAF Air Support Projects and Weapons Since 1945

I have ordered this from a well known source.
I am hoping to see some lovely stuff to inspire more models for my collection.
 
Morning Folks,

An advanced copy of T2T arrived yesterday and looks ace.

Fingers crossed the main shipment will arrive in time for Telford on the 9th. I'll be there, scribbling on books and happy to have a blah, on the Crecy stand from 1500hrs on 9th Nov.

Chris
 

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Mine is on order from Amatheft.. Would love to have gone to Telford. Only managed it once back in 2004
 
However the book was unavailable for sale at the show due to some glorious FUBAR
 
Got my copy today! Flicked through it several times already and it will jump the queue on the reading list. Lots of dodgy nose jobs!
 
A real carrot would have been more aerodynamic on a wind tunnel model :)

I haven't read that bit yet but I believe Chris is referring to night vision equipment.
 
I am deeply dismayed. Amatheft have still not sent me my copy...
 
Poked Amatheft with a virtual stick and my copy arrived this morning. Scanned on the bus into town. There is a colossal amount of info, as one would expect from the author.
Christmas has come early!
 
This turned up at my house today,
49123384091_5046c8fdc6_c.jpg

and for me its an absolute page turner.

Top work, Chris.
 
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Real eye-opener so far - so much info. from base-burning to the Disney bomb. There even seems to have been method in the MoD's madness occasionally. Just finished the recce. section.

Let down unfortunately by editors and proof readers (or lack of) as is so often the case. I had to look up what a "decedent" was and I don't think it had anything to do with the subject. I find this shabby treatment of authors' hard work very annoying and often confusing.

Amatheft delivered last week and surprisingly only charged me £14.95. I must buy Chris a pint sometime to say sorry.
 
Buy the helicopter books and I won't send the boys round.

Chris


The boys can remain in their unmarked white Transit, sipping piping hot tea from a tartan Thermos - I have the first two. Looking forward to the third. Perhaps the boys could pop a copy round for me when it's ready and I'll pay them cash in hand, no questions asked.
 
Is there any book published these days that doesn't have at least one typo in it?
Contrary to expectations, spellchecker do not guarantee error free texts.

I think this is the best of the 'Since 1945' series so far in terms of content and layout and it makes a very fine accompaniment to the later chapters of the revised BSP:1 and 2 in tying together those ground-attack projects into their proper context. And of course its jam-packed with much else besides.
 
My review copy of Chris Gibson's "Typhoon to Typhoon" has arrived. Thanks Chris, nice Christmas present! Quick flick through looks very interesting - review to follow in a few days.

My P.1121 book only has one typo I know of, which is a missing word due to a search and replace. However there are several graphic glitches I didn't catch from the PDF preview. These days Aviation publishers don't really proof or edit like they used to, and the books are printed overseas, so its usually too late to fix. Its suprisingly hard to catch issues from a PDF read on screen. It's all on the all-too-fallible authors such as yours truly. In my case, I was also in a rush for printing deadline for Telford as my flight was already booked and a missed deadline not an option :)
 
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Typhoon to Typhoon is the fifth book in Chris Gibson’s series of books on British aircraft projects and weapons for Crecy. Sadly, there isn’t really a name for this series.

Vulcan’s Hammer (V Bombers)
Battle Flight (Air Defence)
Nimrod’s Genesis (Maritime Patrol)
On Atlas’ Shoulders (Transport)
Typhoon to Typhoon (Air Support)

As compared to the Secret Projects books, Chris’s books have more emphasis on the weapons and sensors intended to be carried (built and unbuilt), the wider context in which the projects sit, and explaining some of the relevant technologies that were developed related to the topic.

Typhoon to Typhoon covers the operational requirements, procurement and development of the aircraft and weapons intended for RAF air support of ground troops., with some discussion of analogous systems from the USA. It has 240 pages including an index. The chapters are not entirely chronological, they are also thematic.

Chapter 1 describes the threat, with details of the Soviet ground and theatre air defence forces.
Chapter 2 covers WW2 RAF air support studies and the tension between what the Army wanted and the RAF was prepared to deliver.
Chapter 3 covers Hunter replacements; NMBR-3 and P.1154.
Chapter 4 covers weapons intended to defeat tanks, mainly AST1227/AST1238.
Chapter 5 covers SEAD and anti-runway weapons.
Chapter 6 covers battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance systems.
Chapter 7 covers light attack projects such as WSRA, MiniCAS, SABA.
Chapter 8 covers multirole aircraft to be tasked with air support up to Tornado.
Chapter 9 covers the many proposals to AST.396 in its different iterations.
Chapter 10 covers the AST.403 requirement and its development into Typhoon.
Appendix 1 discusses armour and armour piercing shell technologies.
Appendix 2 is about ‘base burning’ for drag reduction and its possible application to aircraft.
Appendix 3 has a discussion of “gunships” like the AC-47 Spooky,

The book is beautifully printed, well illustrated (with lots of colour) and laid out in a pleasing 2 column justified layout, like previous books in the series. Excellent artwork by Luciano Alviani (paintings) and Luca Landino (CGI) helps to visualize the unbuilt designs, while Chris Gibson has redrawn many original drawings for clarity and created many charts, diagrams and timelines to help illustrate the story. The research behind the book is impressive, with plenty of designs which were new to me and previously unpublished. The text is well written, authoritative yet very easy to read and sprinkled with quotes from original source documents.

My personal favourites were the NMBR.3, AST.396 and AST.403 chapters (due to my personal interests), but there’s plenty of other interesting stuff throughout the book. There are many unbuilt variants of existing aircraft, a lot with interesting "nosejobs", which could be very interesting to modellers.

I wasn’t completely sold on Chapter 1, but I understand the purpose of its inclusion for the more general reader. Also some of the drawings are reproduced a little small, but I don't have a fix for this other than drastically adding to the page count (or sacrificing content elsewhere). These are however very minor points, and don't detract from the book in any way.

Overall, this book is highly recommended for projects fans and anyone looking for an in depth look at the development and procurement of RAF air support assets since World War 2.
 
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Thanks for the lovely review Paul.

I wasn’t completely sold on Chapter 1, but I understand the purpose of its inclusion for the more general reader.

A wise old publisher once told me 'Not everyone has read what you've read, Chris. You better explain that.'

Chris
 
Thanks for the lovely review Paul.

I wasn’t completely sold on Chapter 1, but I understand the purpose of its inclusion for the more general reader.

A wise old publisher once told me 'Not everyone has read what you've read, Chris. You better explain that.'

Chris

Yep, I was a Soviet fanboi for years, especially aircraft, tanks and air defence, so for me it was a waste of pages that could have allowed bigger drawings. I accept that was a minority position.
 

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