Willy Messerschmitt/Frank Vann

[Pasoleati]

Is this book worth getting?

 

[P J Richards]

Is this book worth getting?

I knew Frank Vann when I was in the aircraft manufacturing industry. I recall him telling me how he met Willy Messerschmitt in the early days of design of the Airbus A300 when German and British partners were debating how to allocate the work for design of different parts of the aircraft. Frank was head of structural design at the Hawker Aircraft factory. At that meeting, an older German made a presentation of his design for the Airbus wing. In reply, one of Frank's colleagues presenting the British proposal for the wing, said of the German proposal that clearly the German gentleman knew little about aircraft design and his wing proposal was quite unsound. On sitting back down Frank scribbled a note on a scrap of paper and passed it to him. The note said "Congratulations, you have just shot down Herr Messerschmitt"! I hope I have done justice to this story.
Frank met Willy Messerschmitt several times over subsequent years of Airbus development. Much later, when Frank himself had retired from what was then British Aerospace, he decided he would get in touch with the Messerschmitt family, and visited them at home. He was made welcome, and when he began to write his biography of Willy, it was based on considerable personal knowledge. He wanted the family to be happy with his plan to write a biography, which I believe his was, and is, the only one written in English. I would be very surprised if his book was not very well worth reading.
Frank himself was a hugely clever engineer, with command of several languages, and a great knowledge of the works of Mozart, among many other interests in the arts and sciences.

 

[HoHun]

Hi Pasoleati,

Is this book worth getting?

Absolutely - I thought it was quite good. In fact, after reading it four years ago, I thought it was a bit strange not more people seemed to know about the book, considering its high quality and the fact that it already came out in 1993.

I guess you're specifically going to enjoy the chapter dedicated to the problems of the Me 109! ;-) The book is organized by topics and not, as so many other books, chronologically, and I think that was a very good choice by Vann.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[hesham]

I don't know this book,but it seems good,and for the most comprehensive
and possessive for aircraft and projects,you must get this.