Spyflights & Overflights : Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance

overscan (PaulMM)

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Nice-looking new title from Crecy/Hikoki from RC-135-pilot-turned-historian Robert S Hopkins III.

Spyflights & Overflights
Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance
RRP: £29.95

Few aviation subjects have been shrouded in more secrecy or been more controversial than cold war aerial reconnaissance. Former reconnaissance pilot Robert S. Hopkins, III, offers new insights into strategic intelligence flights during the early years of the cold war. Primarily undertaken by RB-50s and RB-47s of the Strategic Air Command and by CIA U-2s, other Western nations such as Britain, Sweden, and Taiwan were equally committed to gathering intelligence about the Soviet Union and its allies, and conducted their own peripheral and overflight missions. Hopkins challenges longstanding beliefs that the flights served to prevent war, curtailed needless defence spending, and were undertaken by rogue generals bent on starting World War Three. For the first time he shows the Soviet perspective on the flights, and makes a compelling case that reconnaissance flights did not have a sustained adverse effect on Soviet relations with the West. Using newly declassified materials, interviews with crews and policy makers, and his own experience flying strategic reconnaissance missions, Hopkins links the daily operations of courageous fliers with decisions by Presidents and Prime Ministers that decided the outcome of the cold war.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

ISBN: 9781902109503
Binding: Hardback
Dimentions: 297mm x 210mm
Pages: 200
Photos/Illus: 150 photographs and maps

I have a review copy, and will post a review once I've read it but it looks like an interesting read.
 

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Did he design that cover with Microsoft Powerpoint? In this day and age of finding inexpensive design labor on the Internet, there is no excuse for having such a terrible book cover.
 
PaulMM (Overscan) said:
Nice-looking new title from Crecy/Hikoki from RC-135-pilot-turned-historian Robert S Hopkins III.

Spyflights & Overflights
Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance
RRP: £29.95

Few aviation subjects have been shrouded in more secrecy or been more controversial than cold war aerial reconnaissance. Former reconnaissance pilot Robert S. Hopkins, III, offers new insights into strategic intelligence flights during the early years of the cold war. Primarily undertaken by RB-50s and RB-47s of the Strategic Air Command and by CIA U-2s, other Western nations such as Britain, Sweden, and Taiwan were equally committed to gathering intelligence about the Soviet Union and its allies, and conducted their own peripheral and overflight missions. Hopkins challenges longstanding beliefs that the flights served to prevent war, curtailed needless defence spending, and were undertaken by rogue generals bent on starting World War Three. For the first time he shows the Soviet perspective on the flights, and makes a compelling case that reconnaissance flights did not have a sustained adverse effect on Soviet relations with the West. Using newly declassified materials, interviews with crews and policy makers, and his own experience flying strategic reconnaissance missions, Hopkins links the daily operations of courageous fliers with decisions by Presidents and Prime Ministers that decided the outcome of the cold war.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

ISBN: 9781902109503
Binding: Hardback
Dimentions: 297mm x 210mm
Pages: 200
Photos/Illus: 150 photographs and maps

I have a review copy, and will post a review once I've read it but it looks like an interesting read.

I would for one greatly appreciate your review; a facinating subject if done well.
 
sublight is back said:
Did he design that cover with Microsoft Powerpoint? In this day and age of finding inexpensive design labor on the Internet, there is no excuse for having such a terrible book cover.

Looks perfectly servicable to me. What is so wrong with the cover?

Also, can we assume the author designed the cover?
 
Nope, publisher.

We've been trying...

Chris
 
starviking said:
sublight is back said:
Did he design that cover with Microsoft Powerpoint? In this day and age of finding inexpensive design labor on the Internet, there is no excuse for having such a terrible book cover.

Looks perfectly servicable to me. What is so wrong with the cover?

Also, can we assume the author designed the cover?
I agree. I see absolutely nothing wrong with the cover.
 
gatoraptor said:
starviking said:
sublight is back said:
Did he design that cover with Microsoft Powerpoint? In this day and age of finding inexpensive design labor on the Internet, there is no excuse for having such a terrible book cover.

Looks perfectly servicable to me. What is so wrong with the cover?

Also, can we assume the author designed the cover?
I agree. I see absolutely nothing wrong with the cover.

In this day and age of the ever shrinking publishing market, you need every advantage you can get. Even more so with the niche audience for this particular title. The cover makes the difference between triple digit sales and quadruple digit sales.
 
Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River, infiltrate the Colonel’s team and terminate his command design a new cover for this book. I’m open to innovative book covers for the PTPs.

Chris
 
CJGibson said:
Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River, infiltrate the Colonel’s team and terminate his command design a new cover for this book. I’m open to innovative book covers for the PTPs.

Chris

OK, I'll whip up a quick and not too refined prototype.
 
It isn't quite the actual final cover, which also looks a bit nicer in person. Not a fan of the typography but thats "house style".
 

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Here is a quick and not too refined prototype....
 

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Not my cup of tea I'm afraid, I prefer the original. I liked the cover of American Secret Projects: Fighters and Bombers of World War 2 - nice art, simple layout.
 

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I didn't mean ADD the subtitle, I meant READ the subtitle.

Also...not cricket to borrow another publisher's style.




Chris
 

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Do you seriously believe I have ever seen the rotodyne book? I whipped up that concept at the spur of the moment.
 
Nope, don't doubt you at all, it's just such a cliche.

But that's not the problem with that cover.

Chris
 
The cover looks ok to me, to be honest who sits gazing at their book covers for hours on end?
The most you see is the spine (I love the series of different RAF roundels on Chris' series).

On the other hand I think Crecy has a conspiracy to collapse my bookshelves, with so many tempting books (Secret Projects French Fighters, Atlas' Shoulder's and now this (which looks like a possible multi-volume set) I need to make some serious space by 2017.
 
Skimming through the book I came to a reference of a "Black Beauty" B-47. While the author appears not to believe that this aircraft existed, he describes it as a B-47 with extended wings, different engines and painted black. 2 or 3 were to have been modified and operated by the CIA. Includes reports of tanker crewmen who say they refueled these. I guess this goes into the same category as the camo B-58.
 
Fascinating book.

Separately, a serious thread on cover design and a chance for the authors among us to get feedback before finalization would be a great idea.
 
Whoa! You should address all correspondence regarding covers to the publisher, not the authors. That's the publisher's responsibility.

Given the earlier effort, they appear to be doing better than SPF members.

Chris
 
Depends entirely on the publisher and confidence in them. I did my own covers (no idea if good or not) because I self published, but even when my book was to be published by publishers (they took too long etc which is why I self-published again) they'd been happy for me to contribute the cover. So it depends, not everyone is as lucky as you. And some publishers are crap. It's only about getting opinions.
 

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