Steve Pace - The Big Book of X-Bombers & X-Fighters

Conceptual operational B-70B Valkyries with conceptual operational AGM-48A Skybolt air-launched ballistic missiles. Photo/Illustration by Erik Simonsen

2016 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2016 Steve Pace

First published in 2016 by Zenith Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc. 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. Telephone: (612) 344-8100 Fax: (612) 344-8692

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Digital edition: 978-0-76035-142-0

Hardcover edition: 978-0-76034-950-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pace, Steve.

The big book of X-bombers and X-fighters : USAF jet-powered experimental aircraft and their propulsive systems / by Steve Pace.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7603-4950-2 (hbk.)

1. Fighter planes--United States--History. 2. Research aircraft--United States--History. 3. Bombers--United States--History. 4. Jet planes, Military--United States--History. 5. Aeronautics, Military--Research--United States--History. I. Title. II. Title: USAF jet-powered experimental aircraft and their propulsive systems.

UG1242.F5P322 2016

623.74630973--dc23

2015036871

Acquiring Editors: Dennis Pernu and Elizabeth Demers

Project Manager: Jordan Wiklund

Art Director: James Kegley

Layout: Simon Larkin

THE BIG BOOK OF

USAF JET - POWERED EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT AND THEIR PROPULSIVE SYSTEMS

STEVE PACE

FOREWORD BY WALTER J. BOYNE USAF COL (RET)

It takes a brave author to write a comprehensive review of every turbojet-powered Air Force fighter and bomber, produced or not. Fortunately, Steve Pace is just such an author, with extensive experience and a command of the sources for data necessary to complete such a monumental task.

When we review the remarkable array of aircraft that have been produced over the years, we are struck not only by the progress in aviation that has been achieved, but also by the significant changes experienced within our countrys aviation industry.

Once there were many famous aircraft manufacturers, bearing the names of Chance Vought, Bill Boeing, Glenn Curtiss, Donald Douglas, James McDonnell, Jack Northrop, Glenn Martin, among others. Yet the very progress that each of these great firms injected into the development of aviation forced more and more either out of business or into mergers.

Some suffered the fate of the great North American Aviation firm, producer of legendary fighters such as the P-51 and F-86. First, a merger with Rockwell-Standard changed its name to North American Rockwell, then to Rockwell International, which maintained an aircraft division called North American Aircraft Operations. There followed another series of mergers in which the name disappeared completely, absorbed into Boeings Defense division.

McDonnell disappeared in the same mysterious way, its great name, tradition, reputationeven sales backordersdisappearing without a trace. It happened in Great Britain, too, as Hawker, Avro, and others all ceased to exist. It is a shame when money triumphs over tradition.

Others among the great firms followed different paths. With fewer Department of Defense contracts available, they turned their interests to the field of space or other areas, leaving the aircraft production arena altogether.

The joy to the reader, whether student or buff, will come with the steady, reassuring history that Paces words and hundreds of illustrations provide. Together, they clearly show the aerodynamic design changes that allowed, first fighters, then bombers to reach out past the speed of sound in level flight.

The author covers all of the well-known types in detail and provides the same kind of service to little-known programs (such as Have Blue, Tacit Blue, and Bird of Prey) that played such significant roles in the creation of the very latest bombers and fighters.

For the general reader, this book gives a detailed explanation of how turbojet-powered aircraft evolved from the fledgling and underpowered Bell P-59 of 1942 to the magnificent Northrop Grumman B-2 and the Lockheed Martin F-22 of today.

Their development, of course, depended entirely on the improvement of jet engines. The power of these engines increased tremendously, from an initial 1,250-lbf (pounds force) to the 43,000-lbf available today. At the same time, their reliability improved at an even greater rate, so that engine failure is a rare anomaly today. Specific fuel consumption has been reduced, along with weight. Sadly, since more engines tend to look alike, their histories are not followed as closely as are the histories of the airframes. Yet the author has made room here for a broad treatise on the propulsive systems that propelled the aircraft discussed in his book, telling a part of the story of the dynamos that are buried within the airframes of these fabulous bombers and fighters.

The research that led to laminar flow, swept wings, variable engine inlets, and drag reduction are all here, along with the more exotic studies that allowed stealth to become a reality.

This is a book that can be savored by picking it up and opening to any page, where the reader will get the real story of a historic or virtually unknown aircraft. But for the buff or the student, I recommend going through it page by page from the start, letting the cascade of historical facts build as you read. This method provides a unique foundation, one that clearly shows the interrelationships of the designs that are not apparent at a glance. And while it shows how the industry has changed over the years, it also shows how the industry has clung to engineering truths and integrity.

There is steady progress through the book, although fate and/or finances meant that some avenues (such as the North American XB-70) were abandoned before their time. It also shows how threats and the answers to those threats have changed over the yearsthe engineer had to contemplate the challenge of dropping nuclear warheads in one era and the launching of precision-guided conventional munitions in another.