Product Description

An informative text accompanied by illustrations that are based on projected military aircraft designs for the new millennium. These demonstrate how air combat may be conducted in the coming century, ranging from superfast bombers to search-and-rescue, and troop transport to spies in the sky.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1288404 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

A wonderful insight into the combat aircraft of the future
Essentially composed of UK aerospace design consultantcy AVPRO's advanced aircraft concepts, this book will fuel the imagination of any aircraft enthusiast who dreams of the future.

The book is full of wonderful illustrations of future aircraft of all types and also provides details of the engineering principles behind them. One star is lost due to the overly lengthy introduction which covers existing combat aircraft in contradiction with the book's title. Other than that, a top-notch read.

Worth reading, but more fantasy than reality
Anyone who read the book by the same title published several years ago, which detailed many of the aircraft (Eurofighter, Rafale, Gripen, etc.) that are now coming into service, will be disappointed with this offering. While dealing with real requirements, the authors concentrate more on what they would like to see than on what is realisticly going to be developed. Projects like the stealth aircraft carrier and WIG developments are more likely to be projects of the 2050s - if ever - than the early 2000s.

In addition, possibly because of the fanciful nature of the projects chosen, technical data is very sparse; with developments in engine and onboard weapon systems dealt with only in general terms. However, even when dealing with the current generation of aircraft, the descriptions tend to be of a progress report nature rather than giving any hard performance data.

That said, what the authors propose is generally feasible - if the political fear of the financial burden of innovation could be held at bay (especially in the UK!) - many of these projects would offer considerable advances over what we are likely to see.

Generally, the book should be considered as an interesting "what if" scenario, as opposed to a serious prediction of the future of airpower.