Books by Bill Sweetman, worth reading?

Flyaway

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I've noticed a number of his aviation books cheap second hand online and was wondering if he was author worth reading or best avoided?
 
Definitely worth reading. Much of it is on things still in development, so prone to being overtaken by events after a few years.
To give an example: I bought 'Ultimate Fighter: Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter' when it was published in 2004 - many of the project's risks and concerns were accurately outlined in it. The book has been overtaken by events, but it offers a very interesting view of the project as it was then.
 
Bill Sweetman is a very well-known and highly respected aviation author (and member of this forum, though he rarely appears).

His books and articles have often been looked down upon by aviation purists and historians because they include a lot of speculation on new and often secret aircraft. And very often the speculation proves inaccurate when the truth comes out. But that doesn't mean all in his books is false or uninteresting.
 
My suggestion is "Inside the Stealth Bomber", is accurate and well written.
In particular I liked the first chapter named "The tale of the Whale.
 
Skyblazer said:
Bill Sweetman is a very well-known and highly respected aviation author (and member of this forum, though he rarely appears).

And he's quoted in the forum banner!

As Sky and Arjen note, he often deals in the realm of the unknown (or at least the unacknowledged). Anyone who does so is bound to make a few incorrect projections, but on the whole, he's a fine writer with great sources and a good view of the "big picture".
 
The reason I asked is I noticed he had written a book on the infamous Aurora aircraft which set my alarm bells off.
 
Flyaway said:
The reason I asked is I noticed he had written a book on the infamous Aurora aircraft which set my alarm bells off.

Yeah. And he also authored some pretty infamous articles for Aviation Week & Space Technology on Aurora and a few others... But that's the trouble with this kind of journalism. You are asked to write about something that officially doesn't exist; so either you publish solid information from sources you can't disclose (and therefore it can't be verified and is quickly dismissed or ridiculed) or you kind of try to connect the dots and make up a nice story along the way. In either case it sells magazines, which is what it's supposed to do. But it's not (and can't be) in-depth investigative journalism.
 
The foll books by Bill Sweetman are worth a place in your library :

High Speed Flight - 1983 - potted history of the fastest planes in chronological order and the technology

A-10 - Salamander 1987 - Superb technical description of the A-10

Color enthusiast Series - MBI - F-22/F-35/Stealth Bomber

Ultimate Fighter F-35


but havnt seen too much lately
 
Krishna_j said:
The foll books by Bill Sweetman are worth a place in your library :

High Speed Flight - 1983 - potted history of the fastest planes in chronological order and the technology

A-10 - Salamander 1987 - Superb technical description of the A-10

Color enthusiast Series - MBI - F-22/F-35/Stealth Bomber

Ultimate Fighter F-35


but havnt seen too much lately

You can add Lockheed Stealth to the list, a highly interesting history of Stealth first published in 2001.
 
Back in the day (the 80s) he and Bill Gunston were the two I specifically sought out on my mall trips to Waldenbook and B. Dalton Bookseller. Probably have half a dozen by him. Like them all but they generally don't have the detail of something you'd see by Jay Miller and other Aerofax / WarbirdTech authors.
 
Flyaway said:
The reason I asked is I noticed he had written a book on the infamous Aurora aircraft which set my alarm bells off.

Well, remember that in the late 1980s, in both the popular and the trade press, it was conventional wisdom that the USAF was working on a high-speed SR-71 replacement, whether or not it was actually happening. BS' Aurora book was a good summation of the thinking at the time. Whether he was given bum data or disinformation, or a little of both, it, like many technical surveys, was a point-in-time snapshot and much of what was discussed didn't come to pass. That doesn't mean it wasn't interesting and credible in context (because we didn't know what we didn't know at the time).
 

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