Vertical Takeoff Fighter Aircraft

[gemccry]

I'm surprised no one has picked up on this, next May (at least that what Amazon(US) says right now) will see the publication of "Vertical Takeoff Fighter Aircraft" by Bill Rose. The book cover has already changed-last week when I placed my order the cover had a picture of two of those weird and wonderful VFW/Republic VG/VSTOL FighterBomber Projects with a mushroom cloud from a low yeield tac nuke rising behind them-this week if you check Amazon the cover is an F-35B in the hover.

 

[uk 75]

This could fill a major gap in the market if it has material on the unbuilt vstol projects of the 60s. Hoping for some nice three views and art and please no overlarge photos that we have seen many times before!
If the above is met I shall definitely buy.

 

[Thorvic]

Nah i'll wait on the reviews first. Now if this book had come from the hands of Dr Mike Pryce (aka Harrier) then it would certainly be interesting as Mike Co-authored many of the VTOL papers quoted on VTOL.org, and has been his area of special interest for many a year.
Instead its a most likely to be a stock publication knocked out by Bill Rose for Midland County, so nowt to excited about. :-X

 

[Mike Pryce]

Geoff,


Thanks (blushes!).


I was in touch with Bill Rose about this about a year ago and look forward to getting it myself.


Mike

 

[uk 75]

My copy of this book dropped through the letter box yesterday courtesy of Amazon so I thought I would share my first impressions.

The book is quite a slim volume (handy for reading in certain places!) Although the author is at pains in his introduction to warn that he cannot provide a complete guide to all the vstol fighter projects there were, he does in fact have a pretty good stab at it. The drawings are kept small to allow more of them (some modellers may complain but it is the price for getting in so much stuff in a handy volume). Photos are generally well chosen and usually small. The larger photos are usually justified by the interest factor of the shot, such as the tail sitter ryan in landing mode. All in all a useful text book that will be a welcome addition to both a what-iffers library or anyone interested in vstol.

Althought it does not bother me, some who do not use this site might have found it useful to have a bibliography/links to the web page. Messrs Buttler, Gibson, Lowther and Pryce are mentioned in the intro but a newcomer attracted by the up to date pic of the JSF might wonder...

 

[lark]

Thanks for your info U.K.
Book ordered...

 

[lark]

Have the book.

I only can confirm what UK75 wrote...

I'm missing an extensive bibliography in a work like this
and I should have given preference to the orginal painted cover...

 

[sallows01]

At 170 pages this is hardly a definitive tome on VTOL aircraft, but at the risk of damning with faint praise, it isn't too bad. It is nice to be able to read a book without ending up with wrist strain from trying to support the weight. He hasn't made the mistake of many general VTOL books of spending 100 pages talking about the Harrier, and then summarising all the rest in a few short chapters. I found some interesting projects in the book that I was not aware of previously or had forgotten and whilst I agree with the previous comments that the pictures and drawings are smaller than we have become used to they do provide a function in demonstrating the rapid progression of the VTOL design in the 50 - 60's.

If I was a punter who was just starting to get into the more niche aviation books or someone without specialist books covering VTOL I would be very happy with the content, it really is a nice book (even if I am not sure about the gold leaf title). It just perhaps falls short for those who already have an extensive library covering this area. .

 

[Krishna_j]

i bought this book during a recent visit to London and will recommend it

In this highly illustrated work , Bill Rose has covered the history of the operational and experimental VTOL aircraft - while the familiar ones like the Harrier , Balzac and F-35 are included - obviously they are covered in more extensive detail in individual books -however this is the first to include details of the scrapped projects from west Germany ,US navy , Spain and France which make interesting reading. including proposals like the Bell D-188A, French Snecma C-450 and sand the Fokker D-24 concept. Also interesting are proposed submarine launched proposals.

Bill Rose has taken great pains to document what went wrong with some the projects - though the Russian story is a bit disappointing , it could have been covered in more detail as Yefim Gordon's excellent Yak Vtol fighters provides a good reference.

It also appears that the older Midland Counties publishing label is being replaced with the new Classic Publication brand with the same excellent glossy paper - but they seem to have done away with the dust jacket.

Cons - There is no bibliography or references and I feel one chapter on the evolution and design considerations for Vtol would have been very useful and is missing.- in conclusion this is a must buy although i expected this to be bulkier.