American Secret Projects: Fighters & Interceptors 1945-1978

overscan (PaulMM)

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Cover art on Amazon..... Release date October 26th 2007.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Secret-Projects-Tony-Buttler/dp/1857802640/ref=sr_1_5/002-9959425-8904848?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178201311&sr=1-5
 
Why "1945-1978?"

I can only suppose that the purpose is to sell another post-1978 "American Secret Projects" title?
 
For programs prior to 1978, a good deal of information is publicly available. After that we get into the ATF and successor programs where a lot of the relevant information is still classified, there are dozens of fake/misleading drawings, and there is little scope YET for a comprehensive history. Its a story that probably has to wait a few more years if you want more detail than in, say, the F-22 Aerofax.
 
OS,

Excellent! And about darn time too!

I really enjoy all the Luft 46 stuff - but let's get some equal billing for our side, eh!

I'm looking forward to this one!

Madoc
 
Madoc said:
I really enjoy all the Luft 46 stuff - but let's get some equal billing for our side, eh!

The real issue is that the US didn't lose the war, so unlike the Germans we didn't have our secret files rifled through and widely distrubuted; and unlike the Soviet Union, we didn't inevitably collapse and get replaced initially with economic chaos and then the sudden discovery that people will pay money to look at obsolete, failed design projects. So, our secret stuff to an annoying degree *stayed* secret.

Things obviously leak out from time to time, but that's not quite the same as whole aircraft companies vomitted forth their archives. Plus, we actually don't *shoot* our lawyers. As a consequence, they can often convince corporations to dump their archives into shredders and incinerators... thus there's often nothing *to* reveal.
 
What's the aircraft on the cover? It looks like an early F-15/F-X design study to me.
 
Orionblamblam said:
Madoc said:
I really enjoy all the Luft 46 stuff - but let's get some equal billing for our side, eh!

The real issue is that the US didn't lose the war, so unlike the Germans we didn't have our secret files rifled through and widely distrubuted; and unlike the Soviet Union, we didn't inevitably collapse and get replaced initially with economic chaos and then the sudden discovery that people will pay money to look at obsolete, failed design projects. So, our secret stuff to an annoying degree *stayed* secret.

Things obviously leak out from time to time, but that's not quite the same as whole aircraft companies vomitted forth their archives. Plus, we actually don't *shoot* our lawyers. As a consequence, they can often convince corporations to dump their archives into shredders and incinerators... thus there's often nothing *to* reveal.

And then, of course, you've got short-sighted corporate management that doesn't care to pay the storage bill for the archives. I know this happened at times with Northrop, Rockwell International (NAA), and Cessna. For example, once upon a time at Northrop, I needed to look up how they indexed the boosters on the Snark so that their thrust lines were through the cg of the launched configuration. The write-up on that had been purged from the library and the only way I found the info was from an older engineer who'd worked on the beast.
 
According to Tony, this is probably not the actual cover image at all, just an early mockup.
 
overscan said:
For programs prior to 1978, a good deal of information is publicly available. After that we get into the ATF and successor programs where a lot of the relevant information is still classified, there are dozens of fake/misleading drawings, and there is little scope YET for a comprehensive history. Its a story that probably has to wait a few more years if you want more detail than in, say, the F-22 Aerofax.

I would argue that there is hardly a post-1978 information blackout. There are a few obscure periods, an example being the period of multirole requirement(s)? that predated the single role ATF and ATA.
 
It would be interesting to see a Jay Miller book about the ATF program in general with all the concepts and some history behind the developement and so on. An Aerofax book called ATF/ATA/AX and about an inch and a half thick. ;D
 
What's the aircraft on the cover? It looks like an early F-15/F-X design study to me.

I'd bet it's an interceptor, look at the cockpit, surely no an FX-era air superiority fighter.
 
TinWing said:
overscan said:
For programs prior to 1978, a good deal of information is publicly available. After that we get into the ATF and successor programs where a lot of the relevant information is still classified, there are dozens of fake/misleading drawings, and there is little scope YET for a comprehensive history. Its a story that probably has to wait a few more years if you want more detail than in, say, the F-22 Aerofax.

I would argue that there is hardly a post-1978 information blackout. There are a few obscure periods, an example being the period of multirole requirement(s)? that predated the single role ATF and ATA.

Actually, a lot of the post-1978 material is still covered under DOD classification rules for the most part and I doubt what is available covers near all the story.
 

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