Jim Winchester

Not quite the book I was expecting, but that might be a comment on the nature of the incident in question, as on December 5, 1965, pilot Douglas Webster rolled tail-first off the carrier "Ticonderoga" while participating in an exercise involving an actual atomic weapon. In barely a minute the pilot, the plane, and the weapon were lost, with the event, as was typical for the period, being suppressed.

From there, Winchester gives you a grab bag of supporting stories, this book being a biography show more of Webster, a chronicle of the carrier "Ticonderoga" (particularly her war cruise of 1965-66), an examination of the operational theory of the nuclear arsenals carried on the U.S. Navy's carriers, the publicity impact of what happened once the incident was finally uncovered, and a coda about the lingering impact.

As for what the U.S. Navy made of this whole event, it did lead to a certain tightening of procedures in terms of deck-handling of aircraft on carriers. One consistent theme in Winchester's chronicle is the high level of physical menace on a carrier during an operational deployment.

So, not the most scintillating book I've ever read, but it was certainly informative. show less

This is, to my knowledge, the *third* book (all by different authors) to carry this title . . . after one by James Gilbert published in the early 1980s ]and another written a decade later by Bill Yenne. Of the three, Winchester's covers the widest range of failed designs, but offers the least discussion of each type. Its greatest value is its definition of "worst," which corresponds roughly to "least successful" and thus includes aircraft that worked alright but were designed for poorly show more conceived niches (jet flying boats? parasite fighters?), were left behind by the rapid advance of technology (the hapless Douglas Devastator and Fairey Battle of WWII), or were testbeds for failed concepts (nuclear-powered bombers, Mach-3 airliners). Airplane enthusiasts will get a good laugh out of this book, but it also underlines the fact that the history of technology is *not* a steady, linear "march of progress" . . . always a valuable lesson. show less

Skyhawk is a neat little book on the A-4 with plenty of attention to detail for rivet counters that could use a little more human interest.

The A-4 was designed for a simple, slightly insane mission: a single attack run with a large nuclear weapon. Designer Ed Heinemann looked at trends in naval aviation, with ever larger and more expensive planes, and found a single dangerous trend, the growth factor. Every pound of added equipment added between 4.3 and 10 extra pounds of airframe, engine, show more and fuel, leading to a death spiral of large, expensive jets. With a goal of a unit cost of less than a $1,000,000 per airframe, Heinemann and his design team looked for every possible avenue to add lightness. Delta wings without complex folding mechanisms were the boldest choice, and Heinemann's mantra to build an engine with a saddle and enough fuel to accomplish the mission proved a stunning success.

Though the A-4 was never used in the nuclear role, it soon found success as a light attack plane worldwide. A-4s flew heavy duty in Vietnam, flew with Israel during the War of Attrition and Yom Kippur War, and Argentina during the Falklands War. New Zealand and Brazil operated upgraded Skyhawks into the 90s. The A-4 was always a pilots airplane, and served with many demonstration teams. Better avionics added night and bad-weather capability. The A-4 was fairly safe for a plane of its generation, but the 50s vintage J65 engine consumes oil voraciously, and the electrical system and Colt Mk. 12 cannons were never really up to snuff.

I wish they book had a few more fighter stories, but Winchester knows his stuff. I guess I need to add an A-4 to my model to build list. show less

An incredibly detail-packed book that taught me lots of cool stuff about planes I thought I already knew a lot about. And dozens of planes I'd never heard of. Very tiny print (the way I like it), expertly-chosen illustrations, and concise summaries.