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A**R
This author knows his stuff!
In-depth technical history at its best. These aircraft were the F1 racers, the X-15s, the ultimate speed machines of their time. This book delivers much insight into how they were designed, what it took to maintain them, and what they were like to fly. A wonderful book!
M**S
History on the Schneider Trophy final winner of the Series
Very nice book on the Supermarine S6B history. Good visual presentation, with many photos and diagrams of the design.Explaining the various systems and functions used in the airplane.
D**R
Fascinating look at the design and development of the Spitfire's precursor
2018 was an extremely shaky year on the whole for Haynes. Although they published a few excellent books, many were mediocre at best, and I outright avoided several potentially interesting "manuals" because I was so burned out on the series. Thankfully, this book is very good and occasionally excellent and is one of the best classic aviation titles Haynes has published in a while.After an introduction which presents a history of the Schneider Trophy, focusing mainly on Britain's contributions to the contest, the rest of the book describes the high-performance racing seaplanes built by Supermarine in the mid/late 1920s and early 1930s. Although Haynes has a tendency to pad their books with extraneous fluff, this is a surprisingly lean affair, focused largely on the design and development of the aircraft and their Rolls Royce engines, their peculiar and occasionally fatal flying qualities, and maintaining the planes and preparing them for flight. The book is somewhat mistitled in the sense that it actually covers ALL of Supermarine's racing seaplanes, not just the S6B. While the S6 series is the "star" of the book, the S4, S5, and earlier S6s are also covered in some depth. Ralph Pegram has written previously on the Schneider Trophy seaplanes and the designs of R.J. Mitchell and presents a fairly (but not overwhelmingly so) in-depth look at the aero- and hydrodynamic difficulties which needed to be overcome, along with the design of their massively powerful engines and the cooling systems they required.As usual, there are plenty of excellent illustrations, including historic photos and advertisements, close-up views of the surviving S6s in museums, color diagrams created by the author, and a number of line graphs. The level of technical detail is pretty good, right down to diagrams showing the thickness of each fuselage plate, descriptions of the oil and water cooling systems, and asides on the creation of special oils and lubricants and the extensive use of Duralumin in the plane's structure.As with other Haynes books, it falls a little short in places. It's actually only 156 pages long, not the 192 listed in the product description. As a result, some parts feel a little rushed, particularly the descriptions of the foreign Schneider Trophy competitors, and while there's quite a bit on the development of the racing engines and their ancillary systems, there's not much in the way of any technical descriptions of the finished product. Aside from that, this is an excellent book and a fine tribute to one of the coolest high performance aircrafts of the pre-war era.
S**H
The most complete book on the S-6b I know of.
An excellent book. Clearly written and well presented. If II had to nit pick I would say the only thing missing is a picture of the seat.
TrustPilot
2 个月前
1天前
