Post War Fighters (French Secret Projects, #1) By Jean-Chrisophe Carbonel
Post War Fighters (French Secret Projects, #1) By Jean-Chrisophe Carbonel Hardcover 1910809004 9781910809006 Post War Fighters (French Secret Projects, #1) Following World War II France made determined efforts to catch up with other countries in developing high performance aircraft and designed successful machines to fulfill the needs of the Armee de lAir, the Marine Nationale and compete in export markets.For the next twenty years they were the only aircraft manufacturers to investigate with equal effort, turbojet, ramjet and rocket propulsion for manned fighters, either taking advantage of German war booty technology or using national pre war research. A few, such as the Leduc and Griffon ramjet powered fighters, reached prototype form, the Trident rocket interceptor advanced to the experimental series (pre production) stage and the Ouragan, Mystere, Super Mystere, Mirage III and Etendard were produced in quantity and went on to win export orders. Later, when the turbojet had won the race for the optimal propulsion system, many attempts were made to design variable geometry aircraft (including the Mirage G series) and VTOL types (the SNECMA Coleoptere and Dassault Mirage IIIV), and there were even a few flying boat interceptor studies. In the late sixties, in the pursuit of ever higher speeds, Nord Aviation, Sud Aviation and primarily Avions Marcel Dassault also produced many Mach 3+ proposals. Period drawings, promotional art, photographs of prototype aircraft, mock ups, wind tunnel and promotional models are all combined to present, for the first time in the English language, a complete view of French military aircraft design from the Liberation of France to the late twentieth century.
France was the globally leading power in aviation in World War I lost its position after 1918 due to policy errors and lack of money then recovered an important position after 1945 Its aviation history is particularly rich and fascinating thanks to a demonstrated willingness to pursue extreme concepts even if its truly successful projects achieved a careful balance of requirements. This book then has plenty of fascinating stories to tell from the Leduc ram jet fighters over the Dassault Cavalier VTOLs to the huge Mach 3 designs of the 1960 Unfortunately it often enumerates instead of telling stories It lists illustrates and produces one technical drawing after the other but often fails to tell the story of requirements and engineering that draws everything together Probably much of the relevant information has been lost Nevertheless it is somewhat disappointing. Still highly interesting nevertheless There are minor errors of language and typesetting which should have been caught by the editor but overall it is a good addition to the now extensive Secret Projects series 9781910809006
Following World War II France made determined efforts to catch up with other countries in developing high performance aircraft and designed successful machines to fulfill the needs of the Armee de l Air the Marine Nationale and compete in export markets. For the next twenty years they were the only aircraft manufacturers to investigate with equal effort turbojet ramjet and rocket propulsion for manned fighters either taking advantage of German war booty technology or using national pre war research A few such as the Leduc and Griffon ramjet powered fighters reached prototype form the Trident rocket interceptor advanced to the experimental series pre production stage and the Ouragan Mystere Super Mystere Mirage III and Etendard were produced in quantity and went on to win export orders Later when the turbojet had won the race for the optimal propulsion system many attempts were made to design variable geometry aircraft including the Mirage G series and VTOL types the SNECMA Coleoptere and Dassault Mirage IIIV and there were even a few flying boat interceptor studies In the late sixties in the pursuit of ever higher speeds Nord Aviation Sud Aviation and primarily Avions Marcel Dassault also produced many Mach 3 proposals Period drawings promotional art photographs of prototype aircraft mock ups wind tunnel and promotional models are all combined to present for the first time in the English language a complete view of French military aircraft design from the Liberation of France to the late twentieth century Post War Fighters French Secret Projects 1
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