What do people think about current books?

[uk 75]

I wandered into the Military and Technical Section on the third floor of Foyle's bookshop in London last week for a pre-Christmas browse.
In past years (ok before the Pandorica) I used to come away with a couple of titles I had not been aware of.
This year the section has shrunk somewhat. I found some books I had not seen before but these were either padded Internet style formats or stories about people rather than projects. (as an aside the excellent Forbidden Planet Sci Fi shop nearby is also heavy on people rather than equipment).
Home to my chaotic piles of books and models I am pleased to have bought in the days when they were more interesting.
This may just be me, so feel free to put me straight!

 

[Owens Z]

I have noticed over the last few months that when I go into bookshops or the main newsagent (W H Smith) that there are not many new titles that interest me and where there are they tend to be knock offs from Internet sites or retreads of older books.
However, I am nearly 67 and less than objective in my likes and dislikes so perhaps others have had a better experience?
Foyles the big London bookshop in the centre continues to have fewer titles in its military section. I know there are other more specialised sellers like Ian Allan but they are not in the centre.

I wandered into the Military and Technical Section on the third floor of Foyle's bookshop in London last week for a pre-Christmas browse.
In past years (ok before the Pandorica) I used to come away with a couple of titles I had not been aware of.
This year the section has shrunk somewhat. I found some books I had not seen before but these were either padded Internet style formats or stories about people rather than projects. (as an aside the excellent Forbidden Planet Sci Fi shop nearby is also heavy on people rather than equipment).
Home to my chaotic piles of books and models I am pleased to have bought in the days when they were more interesting.
This may just be me, so feel free to put me straight!

UK 75, before I was laid off with my colleagues during the pandemic, I worked as a book editor, and I have knowledge of the production side as well. Like you and many others I love books, and I firmly believe that books like novels, biographies, histories, etc. will be widely in use a thousand years from now. I remember when e-books were introduced and began their explosive growth, and there was talk of physical books becoming obsolete, but as you might know, e-book growth plateaued and since has slowly declined. (I suspect the current fuss over "Artificial Intelligence will soon replace book authors" is a similar flash-in-the-pan.)

American books like novels, biographies, histories, etc. that are simply black ink on paper are printed in the USA, but for full-color illustrated books on glossy paper, publishers search the world for the cheapest (not necessarily the most skilled and mistake-free, unfortunately) color printer available, as an economy measure. Like you, noticing the discrepancy between the color-illustrated books on aviation/space/naval/military subjects pertinent to 'Secret Projects' on my home's crowded shelves and what is available at bookstores today, I think there has been a severe decline in both quality and quantity of such books over the past four decades, and I fear for their future. For example, there is nothing available now in the USA like the excellent Arco/Salamander "Illustrated Guide To..." series, just right for a kid like me forty years ago with wide-ranging interests but limited budget. I have gotten out of the habit of browsing the few remaining aviation/space/naval/military books on Barnes & Nobles' bargain shelves when I visit, because I found through experience that those "tend to be knock offs from Internet sites or retreads of older books". It's too bad.

Perhaps the authors of color-illustrated books who frequent this website, like the noted Chris Gibson, Scott Lowther, Bill Sweetman, James Jackson, etc., will wish to weigh in here about their own publishing experiences, especially contrasting today with yesteryear?

On the rare times I get to visit England, I do make it a point to visit the big Waterstones and Foyle's bookshops in London (and the delightful Heffers in Cambridge) and take my time browsing there. Your Forbidden Planet in London is the original, but I prefer the branch here in Manhattan. Happy Christmas to you, UK 75.

 

[uk 75]

Owens Z Many thanks for coming back. Greetings to Manhatten which I got to visit for a few days back in 1998.
I notice when I go in Forbidden Planet that characters rather than gadgets or kit seem to be the main interests.

 

[Hood]

This year the section has shrunk somewhat.

Yes, Foyles has shrunk its aviation section (now split between civil and military) and it's mostly the usual stuff (full set of Boys series books etc.) with much less in terms of large hardbacks or rarer stuff. Saying that, the naval section is still relatively interesting.

the big Waterstones

Sadly the Piccadilly Waterstone's has become much like any provincial branch, but with a little more stock.

I do miss browsing bookshops and finding hidden gems, for those you are much better off heading to a second hand shop. I still like to browse books before I buy. Amazon preview is sometimes handy for that, but nothing really beats flicking through a book to ascertain what the quality is like, especially if its an author I don't know well.

For example, there is nothing available now in the USA like the excellent Arco/Salamander "Illustrated Guide To..." series, just right for a kid like me forty years ago with wide-ranging interests but limited budget. I have gotten out of the habit of browsing the few remaining aviation/space/naval/military books on Barnes & Nobles' bargain shelves when I visit, because I found through experience that those "tend to be knock offs from Internet sites or retreads of older books". It's too bad.

The low-end is not much better here in the UK. Usually pretty basic stuff using former Aerospace Publishing profiles and artwork from the late 90s/early 2000s. I think things like Wikipedia have basically knocked the bottom out of sales of general interest aviation books and compendiums like you could find in the 80s and 90s. Books like the Salamander Book of Fighters would be unlikely these days (that was a hefty £50 tome back in the day).

I guess in terms of 'Secret Projects' there is generally less stuff that hasn't been published already and the material that hasn't been published is probably undiscovered, unavailable or deemed of low interest to produce a marketable book. The flow of such books will continue, but more of a trickle than the glut of riches we got in the early 2000s.

(I suspect the current fuss over "Artificial Intelligence will soon replace book authors" is a similar flash-in-the-pan.)

AI will probably join the ranks of the Wiki article reprints that have flooded the market for generic type stuff (accuracy might suffer but to the lay reader that might matter less), but specialised texts will probably remain in the domain of human authors - albeit with increasing use of AI tools to "refine" the text that will make everything bland and samey regardless of who is writing it.
Ultimately the sameness of AI creations will turn off the punters. There is only so much kitsch you can accumulate in your life.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Ultimately, there are several factors at play here.

I think there is less interest in aviation within society compared to the past.

Therefore books sell less copies. Therefore publishers make less money publishing books on aviation.

Also you cannot overlook the invention of the Internet. A young kid with an interest in aviation can find a tonne of stuff online, from Youtube to Wikipedia to Reddit subreddits to Facebook Groups to forums like these. You can fulfill your curiosity without ever buying a book.

When I was a kid, there were a lot of different aviation books even in my local branch of WHSmith, but mostly more generic and not so much on specific single aircraft designs. There might be an occasional TV series about planes, and Farnborough Airshow was on the BBC, but information was very scarce.

I can remember picking up Salamander's "Warplanes of the Future" and immediately resolving to buy it next birthday, visiting it several times for a flick through the pages.

That's hard to reproduce today.

Nevertheless, there are some amazing books published in the last few years, but potentially too specialist to get stocked widely.

 

[Arjen]

Regular Dutch bookshops offer nearly nothing about aviation, some history books about naval and mercantile ships are on offer.
There are two specialist shops less than two hours' drive from where I live. I have more money now than when I was in my teens, this site and some others point me to new titles, there are in fact so many desirable new titles around I have become quite picky. Even so, books are popping up all over the place.

My compatriots appear to be obsessed by shoes, perfume and cosmetics, shoes, clothing, shoes, telephones and their accessories, shoes, unidentifiable knick knacks, and, oh, shoes.

My spending pattern, when set against those of my neighbours, appears to be atypical.

 

[Foo Fighter]

I think we have to accept that the face of reading changes and sadly, the attention span of many would not rival a Gnat. If books can be on demand printed and done so well, unlike the last on deman print book I purchased, I will see it as a lesser of two evils.

The growth of online 'experts' who NO, bugger all makes me want to hurl chunks. Too many mindless idiots ingratiating themselves with fellow muppets curdles my cheese badly. Youtwit video's, expose's and opinions based on something I cannot quanitfy, ditto.

We have a fine resource here with proper gems who produce properly entertaining and enlightening material and I am immensely grateful for that. It might take a long while for this to be properly replicated in any meanigful manner, sad to say.

I occasionally watch the various soapumentaries on the idiot box, more for giggle factor than anything else, mostly it is as useful as they get.

To those of us who are about write, I salute you.

 

[Kiltonge]

There was plenty of slop in the 80s and 90s I can assure you. For every "Project Cancelled" there were many "encyclopedia of aviation" compilations that didn't add anything to the corpus of knowledge.

Even series that were considered technical back then, such as Naval Fighters, early Aerofax or Modern Combat Aicraft, are light on details when viewed through today's lens. A few paragraphs of development history at best, the focus was on units and operations ( easier to research I suppose ).

Salamander's titles were stand-out exceptions that tend to skew nostalgia, much like looking back at movies of the era.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Regular Dutch bookshops offer nearly nothing about aviation, some history books about naval and mercantile ships are on offer.
There are two specialist shops less than two hours' drive from where I live. I have more money now than when I was in my teens, this site and some others point me to new titles, there are in fact so many desirable new titles around I have become quite picky. Even so, books are popping up all over the place.

My compatriots appear to be obsessed by shoes, perfume and cosmetics, shoes, clothing, shoes, telephones and their accessories, shoes, unidentifiable knick knacks, and, oh, shoes.

My spending pattern, when set against those of my neighbours, appears to be atypical.

Same here

 

[Owens Z]

There was plenty of slop in the 80s and 90s I can assure you. For every "Project Cancelled" there were many "encyclopedia of aviation" compilations that didn't add anything to the corpus of knowledge.

Even series that were considered technical back then, such as Naval Fighters, early Aerofax or Modern Combat Aicraft, are light on details when viewed through today's lens. A few paragraphs of development history at best, the focus was on units and operations ( easier to research I suppose ).

Salamander's titles were stand-out exceptions that tend to skew nostalgia, much like looking back at movies of the era.

While I prize the shelf-full of Arco/Salamander "Illustrated Guide To..." books that I retain, and while I enjoyed Project Cancelled by Derek Wood (though that book was 1975 rather than "the 80s and 90s"), I dispute your general contention, Kiltonge. Thirty years ago we had the Putnam Aviation series, including the three info-packed volumes by Bill Gunston on Tupolev, MiG, and Yakovlev after the then-recent fall of the Soviet Empire. We had Gunston's masterful, fact-dense Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft. And Jay Miller's talmudicly detailed The X-Planes. And Miller's well-received Aerofax titles on the B-58, the SR-71, and others. And the four-volume Conway's Fighting Ships. And Patrick Moore's astronomy books. "Light on details?" No. Of course not every book on my shelves is a masterpiece, but today is the comparative wasteland for Secret Projects-pertinent titles, not the 1990's.

All the more reason for me to cherish the top authors who are still productive, like Norman Friedman, Dennis R. Jenkins, and the several Brits who contribute to this Secret Projects site. "When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes", as Erasmus said.

 

[Hood]

I would agree - there were a lot of dense volumes back then and series such as Conway's History of the Ship etc.
I could add M. J. Whitley's naval books, Roger Chesneau, Eric Grove and tomes like Jane's didn't cost the Crown Jewels to purchase or were available in public libraries. Authors like Chris Chant were also prolific, some of these were extended picture books in effect, but some like Ships of the World's Navies and Air Forces of the World were handy compendiums for those who couldn't afford Jane's .
Aerospace Publishing in the UK did a lot of partworks that were reproduced around the world, and of course much of that material made its way into numerous books in the 90s, some thinner than others - but they were a staple of good artwork and relatively up to date text. Plus they did the International Airpower series. There was a period when cutaway books with Mike Badrocke's work became all the rage, some of which had text by Bill Gunston (the three Osprey US company books on Lockheed, Boeing and Douglas).

But saying that, it's easy to get rose-tinted specs and with hindsight the Putnam and Conway's Fighting Ships series must today be used with caution as they do contain some inaccurate data, but the authors were dealing with the information and sources they had at hand.
Pre-internet age it would have been almost impossible for one person to amass the kind of information that this forum has gathered over the last 18 years for example.

 

[publiusr]

The only bookstore near me has a vastly reduced selection on aviation…

 

[Arjen]

There might be less on the history of aircraft and ships than before. I am not sure.

For me, today, it is definitely easier to get my hands on interesting reads than it was in the 80s and 90s, be they new or second hand. I always leave the Flash Aviation shop in Eindhoven with at least one item I wasn't looking for / didn't know it existed. A few times a year, because of reasons.

 

[newsdeskdan]

Of course not every book on my shelves is a masterpiece, but today is the comparative wasteland for Secret Projects-pertinent titles, not the 1990's.

I don't know if I would agree that "today is the comparative wasteland for Secret Projects-pertinent titles". Take Chris Gibson's stellar series on British projects for example:

Vulcan's Hammer: V-Force Projects and Weapons Since 1945 (2011)
Battle Flight: RAF Air Defence Projects and Weapons Since 1945 (2012)
Listening In: Electronic Intelligence Gathering since 1945 (2014)
Nimrod's Genesis: RAF Maritime Patrol Projects and Weapons Since 1945 (2015)
On Atlas' Shoulders: RAF Transport Aircraft Projects Since 1945 (2016)
Typhoon to Typhoon: RAF Air Support Projects and Weapons Since 1945 (2019)
They Also Serve: RAF Reconnaissance and Support Projects Since 1945 (2024)

Then there's Chris's (and others' - such as Paul Martell-Mead's P.1103 and P.1121 book (2015) and Mike Pryce's BAe P.1216: Supersonic ASTOVL fighter book (2011)!) equally excellent Project Tech books on Blue Envoy, such as his peerless series on British helicopter projects (with James Jackson).
And of course Tony Buttler's many projects-related books - too many to list here really. Justo Miranda has published at least seven books on secret projects from 2014 to 2023, with more available as ebooks.
Dietmar Hermann, Robert Forsyth etc. have produced a number of German projects-related books recently.
There are regularly excellent secret projects-related articles - based on new research - in The Aviation Historian magazine by various authors - particularly Professor Keith Hayward.
Also consider the following:

The Secret Horsepower Race by Calum Douglas (2020)
Teach for the Sky: British Training Aircraft since 1945 by James Jackson (2021)
American Secret Projects 3: US Airlifters Since 1962 by Craig Caston and George Cox (2020)
French Secret Projects 1: Post War Fighters by JC Carbonel (2016)
French Secret Projects 2: Bombers, Patrol and Assault Aircraft: Cold War Bombers, Patrol and Assault Aircraft by JC Carbonel (2017)
French Secret Projects 3: French and European Spaceplane Designs 1964-1994 By JC Carbonel (2021)
Westland Aircraft & Rotorcraft: Secret Projects & Cutting-Edge Technology: Secret Projects and Cutting-Edge Technology by Jeremy Graham and Ron Smith (2024)
Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution by Scott Lowther (2021)
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Projects by Scott Lowther (2021)
US Supersonic Bomber Projects Vol 1 by Scott Lowther (2022)
US Supersonic Bomber Projects Vol 2 by Scott Lowther (2023)
American Interceptor: US Navy Convoy Fighter Projects by Jared A. Zichek (2022)
Supermarine Secret Projects Vol 1 - Flying Boats by Ralph Pegram (2022)
Supermarine Secret Projects Vol 2 - Fighters & Bombers by Ralph Pegram (2022)
English Electric Lightning Genesis and Projects by Tony Wilson (2021)
Hawker's Secret Projects: Cold War Aircraft That Never Flew by Christopher Budgen (2023)

I think Osprey's X-Planes series is up to about 16 volumes between 2016 and 2022 - including Steve Richardson's ground-breaking work on the XP-67, to name just one.

I myself have put out maybe 17 or 18 Secret Projects-pertinent titles - all based on primary source research - over the last 8 years or so. Perhaps there were dozens more Secret Projects-pertinent titles published during the 1990s but I would say that we're still reasonably well served for such material today - at least 70 'secret projects' books released since 2010.

Maybe your argument is that these books aren't available as frequently in bricks and mortar book shops - I agree - but it's not difficult to purchase high quality secret projects-related books crammed with new information today if you want them.

 

[Mike Pryce]

"Maybe your argument is that these books aren't available as frequently in bricks and mortar book shops".

Working on that with my new book. A projects book to be found on the table as you walk into Waterstones/Barnes & Noble, or WHSmith at the station/airport etc.

 

[newsdeskdan]

Working on that with my new book. A projects book to be found on the table as you walk into Waterstones/Barnes & Noble, or WHSmith at the station/airport etc.

Tempest Books (Mortons) has distribution through WHSmith Travel, Barnes & Noble, Tesco, Sainsbury's etc. but only a very limited number of titles go into Waterstones. Getting into Waterstones is particularly difficult with niche titles - though it can be done. Tempest also gets into Asda but only with less projects-focused stuff such as the history of the USAF or the F-16 or whatever.

There was one memorable occasion when my BV 155 book (2019) showed up in WHSmith branches across the country - especially the Travel ones - which I think confused a lot of people who really weren't expecting such a niche product to appear in such quantities.

 

[martinbayer]

The only bookstore near me has a vastly reduced selection on aviation…

Try https://www.bookfinder.com/.

 

[newsdeskdan]

Try https://www.bookfinder.com/.

It makes perfect sense that local bookshops, including Waterstones, would cut their aviation sections because they would simply never be able to offer a good range of titles - particularly given how many titles are now available and how niche so many of them are. People looking for aviation books would therefore tend to shop online more - where they can find the full selection. Bookshops therefore see decreased sales and cut stock, and so the cycle continues and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

 

[Pasoleati]

Well, this is specifically a "secret projects" forum, but nevertheless one may ask this: Where are super-detailed English-language books based on latest primary research on major Japanese WW2 aircraft? I for one would prefer a really thorough development, engineering, handling and performance treatment of, e.g., the Ki-44 to any jet-era paper project book.

There is the excellent 2-volume book on Mitsubishi Babs by Joe Picarella, but that's the only one. Here is the issue: Do modern authors (and people in general*) have comprehensive language skills? Researching a British project by an English-speaking British resident is an easy pie compared to researching in Japanese in Japan by a Westerner.

*For example, the former Finnish president Paasikivi (1870-1956) spoke, I think, at least 6 languages. How many languages Starmer speaks?

 

[uk 75]

Thank you everyone for the excellent and informative replies to what was a bit of a moan.
This site has enabled me to find out about books from the comfort of home rather than occasional visit to the long gone Motorbooks in London.

 

[CJGibson]

There was one memorable occasion when my BV 155 book (2019) showed up in WHSmith branches across the country - especially the Travel ones - which I think confused a lot of people who really weren't expecting such a niche product to appear in such quantities.

I picked up Scott's US bombers book in WH Smiths at Newcastle Airport on my way to Aberdeen.
Is this, a drilling rig in Bergen Fjord, the strangest place one of Scott's books has been snapped?

Chris

 

[newsdeskdan]

I picked up Scott's US bombers book in WH Smiths at Newcastle Airport on my way to Aberdeen.
Is this, a drilling rig in Bergen Fjord, the strangest place one of Scott's books has been snapped?

Thanks Chris - I believe that it is, yes - Merry Christmas to you btw!

 

[Jason Dykstra (Wyvern)]

You can fulfill your curiosity without ever buying a book.

I would say that it really depends, as there is a lot of information which simply is not available online and only comes in books. This is especially true for the more obscure things. My research on Maltese aviation history for instance comes fully from books, barring small amounts of contextual information I take from online sources. Again, a lot of things I research regarding British Weapon Systems come in books. I think that the internet and books have a symbiotic relationship. As for the wider, less niche aviation community though, I cannot really comment.

 

[CJGibson]

Again, a lot of things I research regarding British Weapon Systems come in books. I think that the internet and books have a symbiotic relationship. As for the wider, less niche aviation community though, I cannot really comment.

Do you mean you get new information from new books or all your information from existing books?

Chris

 

[Mike Pryce]

A good book should say something new that can be incorrectly quoted and argued over on the internet for years to come.

 

[Jason Dykstra (Wyvern)]

Do you mean you get new information from new books or all your information from existing books?

A bit of both. Unfortunately for me a lot of "new" information is in "old" books which are now out of print and will only turn up at thrift shops at highly inflated prices.

Edit: A lot of the books beings published these days are well-researched and go through archival material which I do not have access to simply due to my location (and budget). So whenever I see a new book on offer, I always give it consideration, as for me, there will always be something new in it. For me a book purchase has more to do with whether it can be shipped to my location, whether I have the space or the budget for it (purchasing, shipping and customs can be quite a nuisance). I simply don't have the time to go to archives either, but a book can help me fill in information that I am lacking, and can help pinpoint certain topics that I can research in the future. My research is mostly done for writing short articles and making YouTube videos (in the future), so the amount of information I have in books may be good enough, and I would definitely make note of the book in the video simply because there is only so much information one can squeeze even into an hour long video (let alone one of 25 minutes) and reading the book will provide a much wider array of information to a viewer/reader. Military Aviation History does this on his channel, for instance. He often mentions the books he used as sources directly in the video and always includes sources in the description.

 

[CJGibson]

One of the joys of SPF is that we (authors) get an idea what folk are interested in. I must admit I tend to do my own thing, but I do pay attention.

Chris

 

[Jason Dykstra (Wyvern)]

I think it's helpful that sites such as this exist as it makes individual research a lot easier, since information can be passed freely between researchers, and authors can also issue updates if research reveals something new. I think the internet can help research rather than work against it, as it connects people together. A lot of the research I have access to is archival material which has been shared online. Otherwise I would have no primary sources. Books such as those published by the authors present here not only fill in gaps which are available in online material (which, whilst extensive, generally has gaps), but it also corrects common misconceptions, and can help researchers pinpoint areas which require further research.

 

[edwest4]

Ultimately, there are several factors at play here.

I think there is less interest in aviation within society compared to the past.

Therefore books sell less copies. Therefore publishers make less money publishing books on aviation.

Also you cannot overlook the invention of the Internet. A young kid with an interest in aviation can find a tonne of stuff online, from Youtube to Wikipedia to Reddit subreddits to Facebook Groups to forums like these. You can fulfill your curiosity without ever buying a book.

When I was a kid, there were a lot of different aviation books even in my local branch of WHSmith, but mostly more generic and not so much on specific single aircraft designs. There might be an occasional TV series about planes, and Farnborough Airshow was on the BBC, but information was very scarce.

I can remember picking up Salamander's "Warplanes of the Future" and immediately resolving to buy it next birthday, visiting it several times for a flick through the pages.

That's hard to reproduce today.

Nevertheless, there are some amazing books published in the last few years, but potentially too specialist to get stocked widely.

The internet. Leading the charge into an inaccurate future. As a professional researcher, the best I've seen is 75% accuracy. That's it. It gets you a passing grade in school, no more. So, if you want things that way, fine. If not, remarkable work is still being done and published. The current problem is that it's buried under a pile of ebooks that, if turned into physical copies, would reach from the Earth to the Moon and back again. The current rallying cry for some is "I got my book published." So what? Is it really any good? Based on what?

Youtube is a haven for the unfootnoted. Wow. Look at what I saw on Youtube! And it's all based on? The author's imagination? A few cobbled together images? All without source references and with no way to verify a single word.

But it's free. So are the remarks you'd get at the local pub.

And the People's Radical Encyclopedia, Wikipiedia? Who vets anything? Is it based on the hope that the articles and books referenced were written by actual professionals who actually know how to do such things?

Take book reviews on Amazon. Actual professional researchers agree with me when they point out that people without any actual knowledge about the subject matter are more likely to post meaningless (non-) reviews. Like: I liked it. Or: It was boring.

This site, and a few others, do a great service when posting notices of specialty books.

An explosion in publishing does not equal an explosion in quality. Easy is preferred over hard. The people have provided military intelligence with the means to monitor their every keystroke on any device, which they, not their government, paid for.

It is a profound reversal in culture when staring at your phone is preferable to talking with an actual person.

Again, truly great work is being published. The vultures who run the so-called secondary market are keenly aware. They make sure to buy what they can so they can mark it up to hundreds of dollars once it's no longer available from the publisher.

Bookstores today are less about careful curation or finding out what their customers want. It's about hiring teenagers at the lowest wage and making sure they have some idea of where things are. And there is no space for the many titles being published even in the largest stores. A small chain that died an untimely death was my go-to source not just for books I was looking for but the discovery of books I was unaware of. They had a special order department where I ordered a copy of Arado Ar 234C. The bankruptcy judge told the new owners that the chain could survive if they took a modest pay cut. The stores closed. The name was bought and it reappeared in Saudi Arabia.

 

[edwest4]

I think it's helpful that sites such as this exist as it makes individual research a lot easier, since information can be passed freely between researchers, and authors can also issue updates if research reveals something new. I think the internet can help research rather than work against it, as it connects people together. A lot of the research I have access to is archival material which has been shared online. Otherwise I would have no primary sources. Books such as those published by the authors present here not only fill in gaps which are available in online material (which, whilst extensive, generally has gaps), but it also corrects common misconceptions, and can help researchers pinpoint areas which require further research.

Doing actual research is hard and time consuming. It appears some are always hoping that someone else will do it. Common misconceptions stay common through repetition and some hoping that someone else will check the author's references, if any. Or posting complaints when those references are not included. That said, others have done the work, published the books and articles. And included all necessary references. Fine work is being done.

 

[Schneiderman]

.......Common misconceptions stay common through repetition .........
That is so true, and it is occasionally possible to trace the errors back to their source. Unfortunately these too often turn out to be books from a few decades or more back, many of which are by well-respected authors.

 

[edwest4]

.......Common misconceptions stay common through repetition .........
That is so true, and it is occasionally possible to trace the errors back to their source. Unfortunately these too often turn out to be books from a few decades or more back, many of which are by well-respected authors.

I've seen that. The solution is to provide the necessary primary documents.

 

[Owens Z]

I don't know if I would agree that "today is the comparative wasteland for Secret Projects-pertinent titles".

As I trust was clear from my posts and the context, Mr Sharp, I mean no disrespect to current authors of Secret Projects-pertinent books: I want more such hard-working authors. With the number of Tony Buttler titles on my straining bookshelves, I think my royalties will have bought that man a new car. I have purchased several of Scott Lowther's worthy bookazines, and I greatly esteem my copy of Carbonel's French and European Spaceplane Designs, and the two American Secret Projects books on airlifters of which you mention one. You modestly didn't include your own excellent British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle about the MUSTARD vehicle.

With all that said, as I told him I do share UK 75's sense of a distinct decline in books of interest over the past decades, and others have since agreed.

I respect Osprey Publishing and am of course glad that they remain in business, but I have found that the X-Planes series books I have bought don't tell me anything I have not already known from reading thicker works. Therefore little value for the money, unfortunately: better to get the equivalent Steve Ginter titles. Instead I prize Angus Konstam's and Stephen Turnbull's titles for Osprey, which are about what for me are less familiar subjects.

(P.S. As I trust is also clear, I greatly value the Internet in general, and this Secret Projects website in particular.)

 

[Owens Z]

Take Chris Gibson's stellar series on British projects for example:

Listening In: Electronic Intelligence Gathering since 1945 (2014)

I grimly chuckled to myself when I saw this book mentioned, because this is exactly the expansive subtitle that was advertised to me years back, and shown on the (doctored?) front cover image. As I discovered when my ordered copy arrived, the actual subtitle (and I am holding the book as I write this) is RAF Electronic Intelligence Gathering Since 1945. I recall that in the 1980's only the 1960 U-2 incident and the Swedish 1952 'Catalina Affair' were generally written about, and I was interested in more info on the subject of top-secret photorecon and SIGINT overflights even before the lengthy and informative 15 March 1993 US News & World Report cover story (see attached image). A portion of that article, and the majority of the associated "Prime Time Live" episode televised that same time, was about an ongoing search for downed MIA aircrew possibly imprisoned by the Soviets who might still be alive in the then-new Russian Federation. I have heard nothing further of this in the three decades since, so I take it no live American was ever found. But I hoped for more information. When I saw the Forster/Gibson book's true subtitle, that hope was dashed, but I still began to read the book with interest. Unfortunately, too little of this book is on the no-doubt harrowing actual experiences of RAF aircrews beyond the Iron Curtain (and in 1982 near Argentina), and too much on a slog through details of the innards of obscure black boxes. Not recommended. The experience has so far put me off from considering a purchase of the eventual related volume, Spyflights and Overflights: Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance Volume 1 1945-1960 by a different author.

 

[edwest4]

As documents continue to be declassified going forward, books of this nature are a must. The early Cold War period needs to be fleshed out in detail. The puzzle pieces put in. Our brief Soviet ally became a threat before the last bullets of the Second World War were fired. The Soviets were the cause of a massive military build-up. We had to know what they were doing behind the Iron Curtain.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

When I saw the Forster/Gibson book's true subtitle, that hope was dashed, but I still began to read the book with interest. Unfortunately, too little of this book is on the no-doubt harrowing actual experiences of RAF aircrews beyond the Iron Curtain (and in 1982 near Argentina), and too much on a slog through details of the innards of obscure black boxes. Not recommended.

Well, Dave Forster is very interested in the obscure black boxes, so much that he wrote a book about them I'm much more interested in the technology than the 'actual experiences of RAF aircrews'.

This shows that no book caters for all audiences, and the importance of communicating clearly the contents. I recall a one star review of a Secret Projects series book that said something to the effect of "just a bunch of paper designs that didn't get built".

The experience has so far put me off from considering a purchase of the eventual related volume, Spyflights and Overflights: Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance Volume 1 1945-1960 by a different author.

Robert Hopkins III is a former pilot, and I'm pretty sure his book will be much more to your taste.

 

[Arjen]

I have both books.
Without wanting to.appear greedy, any hope for Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance Volume 2?

 

[CJGibson]

Well, Dave Forster is very interested in the obscure black boxes, so much that he wrote a book about them I'm much more interested in the technology than the 'actual experiences of RAF aircrews'.

This shows that no book caters for all audiences, and the importance of communicating clearly the contents. I recall a one star review of a Secret Projects series book that said something to the effect of "just a bunch of paper designs that didn't get built".

Robert Hopkins III is a former pilot, and I'm pretty sure his book will be much more to your taste.

Beat me to it.

I suspect Owen Z saw an early cover. Publishers always demand covers early on in the production cycle, and neither titles nor covers escape the fiddling of the publishers, qv the cover of my last.

I have to ask. With a Canberra and a Comet on the front, what made you think it was about USAF missions? But then I did have one reviewer of On Atlas' Shoulders complain that the book wasn't just about Atlas. Why? It had an Atlas on the front.

Chris

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I have to ask. With a Canberra and a Comet on the front, what made you think it was about USAF missions?

American exceptionalism?

 

[The K2]

The only bookstore near me has a vastly reduced selection on aviation

My nearest Barnes & Noble closed after a fire and never reopened. Supposedly, the fire was started by a transient. The only other bookstore is a used bookstore with a terrific selection of titles. Somehow, bookstores are a dying breed here in Southern California
Yes, I enjoy thumbing through a book before buying it. I have noticed the falling quality of color illustrations printed in books too. Don’t get me started about the binding.