TSR.2 - "Aircraft Stories" by John Law

[Mike Pryce]

A book by a fellow academic who researched the TSR.2 and came to see it as an exemplar of the sociological concept of 'performativity'. (!)


Not for the faint-hearted, and if you are not a 'post-modernist' (I'm not), then this book's main 'thesis' will leave you cold/annoyed.


However, it does have some nice pictures from the archives, and some of it is available on Google Books:


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8Chz2rM0HVIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=aircraft+stories&hl=en&ei=tZAtTuH2CIa38gO4uIz0Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[F-14D]

"...gendering..."?

 

[aim9xray]

Part of a review on Amazon US:

Law's style of prose is at once flaccid, flatulent, and fastidious. And the content piggy-back rides on the names of some famous people (like Deleuze) and their concepts (like rhizome) without getting anywhere.

 

[CJGibson]

Rest assured I have culled all mention of "gendering", "performativity" and flatulent prose from our resident academic's latest effort on the P.1216. Unfortunately I failed to cull the photos of Maggie that are currently upsetting a Geordie printer.

Chris

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

As the possessor of a degree in English, I had to read crap like that and write about it like it wasn't complete twaddle. Not so easy.

Some nice brochure pics, though.

 

[JFC Fuller]

Part of a review on Amazon US:

Law's style of prose is at once flaccid, flatulent, and fastidious. And the content piggy-back rides on the names of some famous people (like Deleuze) and their concepts (like rhizome) without getting anywhere.

This is actually the best summary I have seen of this book. If the author had gotten over himself and created a work that looked at the less tangible variables (social, political and behavioural) that sculpted the TSR-2 and its cancellation he could have produced a genuinely interesting piece. Instead the end result is something that reads rather like an undergraduate student who has just discovered a bunch of new theories in one of his rare visits to the library, this is only compounded by the awful writing style.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Rest assured I have culled all mention of "gendering", "performativity" and flatulent prose from our resident academic's latest effort on the P.1216. Unfortunately I failed to cull the photos of Maggie that are currently upsetting a Geordie printer.

Chris

;D

 

[Abraham Gubler]

While 'Aircraft Stories' is good for a laugh on this forum don't for a second let anyone make the mistake of thinking it has actually anything to do with the TSR.2 program. It’s a book interpreting something via the prism of post structuralist philosophy. At its essence a philosophy that proclaims the destabilisation of meaning. What this has to do with engineering, the requirements basis of force structure planning and government treasury financial planning (the three fundamental inputs to the TSR.2) is very, very little. The critique on Amazon is because it is a poorly done post structuralist analyst. If it was ‘good’ post structuralist analysis it would still be just as useless for anyone interested in the TSR.2 and/or not looking for a research grant in philosophy.

 

[Mike Pryce]

Rest assured I have culled all mention of "gendering", "performativity" and flatulent prose from our resident academic's latest effort on the P.1216. Unfortunately I failed to cull the photos of Maggie that are currently upsetting a Geordie printer.

You did not need to cull a thing Chris, as it was never in there! Just lots of ASTOVL goodness.


Maggie was part of the P.1216 history, so she stays in. Ah divvent gi' a hoot what wor printer says! And she looks foxy too! :-*


As for Aircraft Stories, philosophy can be used for such things - I lecture on aircraft design and Wittgenstein, but then he was an aeronautical engineering student first and I can make the case - engineers like to hear me prattle on. Law's book is self-indulgent IMHO, that's its flaw, although his early paper on the Olympus 320 was interesting for engineers and philosophers alike (The Olympus 320 Engine: A Case Study in Design, Development, and Organizational Control. - www.jstor.org/stable/3106632).


For forum members, the few pics available on Google Books might be interesting. But save your money!