- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd; First Edition edition (22 Mar 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861266553
- ISBN-13: 978-1861266552
- Product Dimensions: 24.9 x 19.3 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,103,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Flying Guns of The Modern Era describes the history of aircraft guns, ammunition and their installations in aircraft, from the end of WWII to the present day. This period has seen the development of guided missiles for both air-to-air and ground-attack roles. Covers aircraft installations for all nations and an evaluation of combat use, including a comprehensive table of gun installations in combat aircraft and helicopters, comparative drawings of the principal service weapons and data tables of the guns and ammunition.
About the Author
Anthony G Williams has previously published 'Rapid Fire: The Development of Automatic Cannon, Heavy Machine Guns and their Ammunition for Armies, Navies and Air Forces'
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you're interested in aerial combat you'll enjoy this book. It covers not only guns and ammunition, but their use in operations, effectiveness and any difficulties (or particular advantages) in their use. This book helps to create an excellent context for other accounts of WWII in the air. Read it!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Within a short time of receiving this book I realised that I had essentially purchased the same work twice, with the author's earlier book ``Rapid Fire'' ( ISBN 1840371226 ) already on my shelf. ``Flying Guns: The Modern Era'' reads as a slightly expanded version of the ``Weapons for Air Fighting'' chapter of that book.
There are early flourishes of promise dashed by lack of endeavour; for example, a section dedicated to gun pods quickly decays into dull regurgitation of various weights and dimensions that would fit into a half-page table, instead of addressing the interesting history and design problems of these pods.
The book then moves on to the installation of gun armament in selected aircraft. Again there are tantalising glimpses of what this book could have been, such as the discussion of the proposed armaments for the B-36, but the authors soon revert to wrapping verbiage around data that would be better presented in tabular form. Bizarrely, there is actually an Appendix entitled ``Installation Tables'' that renders these chapters superfluous; it lists individual aircraft types with their installed gun armaments and ammunition capacities.
Many illustrations and a large proportion of the scale drawings will be familiar from `Rapid Fire''. Some of the new additions to the drawings, such as that of the GAU-8, are embarrassingly shoddy though not as embarrassing as the authors' excuse that they have had to render these from ``poor-quality'' sources.
Throughout there is a tendency to vagueness; we are told that the MiG-27 experienced ``installation problems'' with the GSh-6-30 ( actually fuel-tank fractures ) and that the development status of the RMK30-2 is ``unclear'' ( perhaps a call to Mauser would have helped clarify ).
A disappointing by-the-numbers repackaging of previous work. Even previous errors, such as claiming that the NR-30 is gas-operated, are repeated without correction.
There are early flourishes of promise dashed by lack of endeavour; for example, a section dedicated to gun pods quickly decays into dull regurgitation of various weights and dimensions that would fit into a half-page table, instead of addressing the interesting history and design problems of these pods.
The book then moves on to the installation of gun armament in selected aircraft. Again there are tantalising glimpses of what this book could have been, such as the discussion of the proposed armaments for the B-36, but the authors soon revert to wrapping verbiage around data that would be better presented in tabular form. Bizarrely, there is actually an Appendix entitled ``Installation Tables'' that renders these chapters superfluous; it lists individual aircraft types with their installed gun armaments and ammunition capacities.
Many illustrations and a large proportion of the scale drawings will be familiar from `Rapid Fire''. Some of the new additions to the drawings, such as that of the GAU-8, are embarrassingly shoddy though not as embarrassing as the authors' excuse that they have had to render these from ``poor-quality'' sources.
Throughout there is a tendency to vagueness; we are told that the MiG-27 experienced ``installation problems'' with the GSh-6-30 ( actually fuel-tank fractures ) and that the development status of the RMK30-2 is ``unclear'' ( perhaps a call to Mauser would have helped clarify ).
A disappointing by-the-numbers repackaging of previous work. Even previous errors, such as claiming that the NR-30 is gas-operated, are repeated without correction.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Clear , informative and well-illustrated. A look at the contents gives an idea of the book's scope. The chapter on combat experience is particularly interesting.
By the way, the authors' remark about working from poor photos applies only to a few side -views of guns given solely for purposes of size comparison.
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By the way, the authors' remark about working from poor photos applies only to a few side -views of guns given solely for purposes of size comparison.
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