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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0231.PDF
106 FLIGHT Aeronautical Bookshelf Aircraft Annual 1959, edited by John W. R. Taylor. Ian Allen Ltd., Hampton Court, Surrey. Price 10s 6d. Illustrated. THIS new edition of Aircraft Annual is probably the ideal bookfor the man who, interested in aviation yet not immersed in it, wants to know what is going on in the fast-moving aeronauticalworld. "Aviation at the Cross-roads" proclaims the heading of the first chapter. Aviation, like the French Republic, often is; happily,though, both institutions manage to survive. This book helps to signpost the way ahead (even if it be into the stratosphere), stimu-lates the aeronautical traveller, and equips him for further study if he has a mind for it. In these days politics cannot be completely left out of the avia-tion picture, and Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby grasps the nettle, though gently, in his chapter "Control by Air Power." Hewrites: "Since Suez our chances of being able to use it [air con- trol], or even to defend our rights if challenged, are much lessgood than they used to be. No doubt this political weakness will pass, and we shall have to resort to force on occasions in order tomaintain our rights. If so, we shall find, as in the past, that the methods of air control will prove to be humane, efficient, andeconomical." "Behind the P.IB," another noteworthy contribution, presentsthe little-known story of the English Electric Company, giving a timely reminder that this great enterprise "have been buildingaeroplanes by the thousand since 1911." In other words, the Canberra and the Lightning didn't just happen. "The New Luftwaffe," by ex-Luftwaffe major Hans OttoBoehm, tells the story of the rebirth of the German Air Force. It is more detailed and informative about NATO's new air partnerthan anything we have seen in German publications. _ More than 100 photographs illustrate this lively annual, and theintroduction of colour is a welcome innovation. A. j. w. Hitler's Pilot, by Lt-Gen. Hans Baur. Frederick Muller Ltd., 110 Fleet Street,London, E.C.4. Price 18s. THERE is much in this book to interest the war historian—oneimagines that even a Trevor-Roper would be able to discover hitherto unrevealed facts—but for the reader whose primaryinterest is aviation it is curiously unsatisfying. Nor does the translator seem happy in the more technical passages, and his con-stant use of the journalese word "plane" is irritating. This is the autobiography of Lt-Gen. Baur, a pilot of theKaiser's War and an airline captain from 1919 onwards. He gives an impression of Teutonic stolidity and humorlessness, particu-larly in recounting (with no excess of modesty) his achievements in pioneering various D.L.H. services in the inter-war years. He first met Hitler in 1932, when the Fuhrer-to-be chartereda Rohrbach from D.L.H. for an election tour. In the following year Baur became his personal pilot; and in 1934-35 he organizeda unit of six Ju 52s which was to grow by 1943 to a communica- tions flight of over 40 aircraft—Ju 52s, Fw Condors, Siebels,Fieseler Storchs and Heinkel He Ills. Most of the Nazi hierachy, as well as the Fiihrer himself, flewwith Baur at one time or another—among them Hess ("the man I liked best as a passenger") and Goering ("I took over while . . .he steadily ate his way to Munich"). In 1939, of course, every flight was a victory march. When Gen. Fritsch had been killedby a Polish bullet, "Hitler briefly expressed his regret, and then got back into the plane and gave the order for the take-off. Witha fighter escort we now flew over the front lines at a height of between six and seven thousand feet, and we could easily see thedevastation being caused in the suburbs of Warsaw. After cruis- ing around over Warsaw for about thirty minutes we returnedto our landing-place. ... A few days later, Poland as a whole surrendered." But slowly, inevitably, the grim edifice began to crumble: — "In September 1943 I flew Hitler to Insterburg, where the latestmodels produced by the German aircraft industry were demonstrated to him. Practically all the high-ups were present, including Goering,Milch, Korner, Professor Messerschmitt and Professor Tank of the Focke-Wulf concern. First of all we were shown rocket-firing planes,and then two types of jet, a bomber and a fighter; the formal part of the affair was concluded with a demonstration of the so-called Rotterdamradar apparatus. . . . "Goering immediately agreed to let me have [one of the new Ju 290transports] but then changed the subject at once. Messerschmitt, it appeared, had undertaken to manufacture a thousand jet fighters by thespring of 1944, by which time it was supposed that the Allies would launch their invasion. Goering then went on to say that all the neces-sary material was available, except the nickel for the turbines. Only recently, as Hitler knewj all available stocks of raw materials, includingnickel, had been apportioned, so that unless other arrangements were made there would not be enough nickel for the jet fighters. "When Hitler, Goering and I got out of the Ju 290, Messerschmittand Milch were waiting on the ground. Hitler confirmed from Messer- schmitt what Goering had said, and then declared: 'Very well, I'll seeto it that you receive the nickel; you see to it that you produce them. The jet fighter is enormously important.'"But February 1944 arrived, and then March—but the jets did not In/ the meantime the German fighter arm was running into more andmore trouble. The bomber hosts invading Germany were growing larger and larger—on some days between three and four thousandplanes flew in—but there were no jets to meet them. No one knew why, though there were many rumours. Something was wrong in theAir Ministry, it was said. In any case, a little later Milch was deprived of his post." And so to the ultimate squalid scene in the Berlin bunker, in which Baur was a participant. It is only in the final chapters, in which he describes his treatment by the Russians, that the ex- D.L.H. captain who became Hitler's confidant begins to emerge as a flesh-and-blood figure for whom the reader can feel some sympathy. R. E. c. Handbook of the Aircraft Industry, edited by J. L. Nayler and T. F.Sounders. George Newnes Ltd., Tower House, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C.2. Price 35s. Illustrated. THIS is more of a bedside or office desk companion than a refer-ence book. Finding it impossible to pack into a single volume all the facts and figures which would make it a work of reference, theeditors have chosen subjects embracing the industry in the widest sense, and which will remain factually correct for a few years atleast. The book will need to be regularly kept up-to-date if it is to be of lasting value, although today its information is reliableand informative. There are some outstanding contributors—Sir Arnold Hall onaviation engineering as a career; Professor A. J. Murphy on aero- nautical education and training; and Maurice Imray with a chap-ter on records, explaining the sporting code of the F.A.I. Only one complaint—in places the book seems a little over-written. We are told that there are "several supersonic research aircraft" flying in Britain. This reviewer can recall only theF.D.2and theP.lA. Why not say there are just two? On page 228 there is the slightly unnecessary information that two of theboosters on the Bristol Bloodhound have the word "Bristol" painted on them! . . A. C. B. OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED High Altitude and Satellite Rockets (Symposium held at Cranfield,July 18-20, 1957). Royal Aeronautical Society and the British Inter- planetary Society. Price 32s 6d. Rockets and Satellites, edited by L. V. Berkner. Pergamon Press,4 and 5 Fitzroy Square, London, W.I. Price £8. American Aces of World War II, by Edward H. Sims. Macdonaldand Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 16 Maddox Street, London, W.I. Price 18s. Aviation Medicine—Selected Reviews, edited by Clayton S. White,W. Randolph Lovelace II and Frederic G. Hirsch. Pergamon Press, 4 and 5 Fitzroy Square, London, W.I. Price 70s. Brassey's Annual, 1958, edited by Rear-Admiral H. G. Thursfield.William Clowes & Sons Ltd., Little New Street, London, E.C.4. Price 63s. Air Intake Problems in Supersonic Propulsion (11th AGARD Com-bustion and Propulsion Panel Meeting, Paris, December 1956), edited by J. Fabri. Pergamon Press, 4 and 5 Fitzroy Square, London, W.I.Price 30s. Great Escape Stories, edited by Eric Williams. The Heirloom Library,Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 7 Cork Street, London, W.I. Price 12s 6d. Factories and Plant (History of the Second World War), by WilliamHornby. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Atlantic House, Holborn Viaduct, London, E.C.I, and Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 6 and 7Clifford Street, London, W.I. Price 37s 6d. Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1957. Superintendentof Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D.C. Price $4.50. Bluey Truscott, by Ivan Southall. Angus and Robertson Ltd., 105 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Price 18s. Aeromodeller Annual 1958-59, compiled and edited by C. S.Rushbrooke, F.S.M.A.E., and D. J. Laidlaw-Dickson. The Model Aeronautical Press Ltd., 38 Clarendon Road, Watford, Herts. Price10s 6d. Who's Who in World Aviation and Astronautics, Vol. 2. AmericanAviation Publications Inc., 1001 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Washington, 5, D.C. Price $12.50. EARLY FLYING BOOKS / . CLAIMED to be the only publication of its kind current in England, acatalogue of rare and out-of-print books on aviation has just been issued by C. G. B. Stuart, of The Hall, Fairlight, Hastings, Sussex. Mr. Stuartstates that his stock of out-of-print aviation books, totalling over 20,000 items, is the world's largest.Evident from the catalogue is the growing interest in early aviation works, particularly those devoted to the World War I period. Mr. Stuartalso catalogues an interesting collection of U.S.A.F. pictorial, group and squadron histories, produced only in limited numbers.
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