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- #6,161
sweet Paul.
A new book in my library. (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Wayne Little
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Totalize
Tech Sergeant
This arrived about 2 weeks ago. Very nice. I have the Tamiya 1/32 Mosquito and will use this book as a reference.
buffnut453
Captain
Just finished reading "The Tizard Mission" by Stephen Phelps:
The book recounts the various efforts taken by Britain to leverage US industrial production for high-tech components starting in early 1940.
Among the most valuable technologies offered, essentially free of charge, by the Brits was the cavity magnetron which revolutionized radar by providing a rugged power source sufficient to generate centimetric wavelengths in an airborne installation. There's lots of fascinating info in the book, not least the rapid development of airborne radar from metric air intercept to air surveillance, ground mapping and ground-based fire control applications, all in an incredibly short timeframe (e.g. taking an Avro Anson up for an air intercept trial and then seeing if it could also detect ships...and succeeding!).
It's a story of some incredibly inventive men pushing the boundaries of known technology in the UK...and then working to secure sufficient production capacity in the US. I was also unaware of how the 2 nations contributed to the successful deployment of centrimetric radar. I was aware of Mosquitos being fitted with American radars later in the war but I wasn't aware that, although produced in America, much of the technology, including the cavity magnetron and receiver components, originated in the UK.
There are 2, somewhat related, negatives to the book. Firstly, the author wastes far too much time providing background context of what was happening during the war as we trot along the timeline of the Tizard Mission. By all means provide some explanation but some of the background goes on for entire chapters. If someone's interested in the Tizard Mission, they probably have a good handle on the rough timelines for things like the Battle of Britain. The second negative is that I'd prefer to have more technical meat in the book, particularly some comparison of equivalent developments in other nations. We keep hearing how revolutionary the cavity magnetron was in 1940 but there's precious little support for the claim other than a couple of quotes (I believe it was vital...and revolutionary, indeed its derivatives (operating on pretty much the same principle) still power millions of microwave ovens to this day.
Definitely worth the read but for me it simply was an introduction to the topic. I now want to read more detail about the events described, and so have ordered Taffy Bowen's "Radar Days" (Taffy was the "father" of airborne radar leading a small team to create the first metric wavelength system, and then spent much of the war in the US helping drive development of the centrimetric systems).
The book recounts the various efforts taken by Britain to leverage US industrial production for high-tech components starting in early 1940.
Among the most valuable technologies offered, essentially free of charge, by the Brits was the cavity magnetron which revolutionized radar by providing a rugged power source sufficient to generate centimetric wavelengths in an airborne installation. There's lots of fascinating info in the book, not least the rapid development of airborne radar from metric air intercept to air surveillance, ground mapping and ground-based fire control applications, all in an incredibly short timeframe (e.g. taking an Avro Anson up for an air intercept trial and then seeing if it could also detect ships...and succeeding!).
It's a story of some incredibly inventive men pushing the boundaries of known technology in the UK...and then working to secure sufficient production capacity in the US. I was also unaware of how the 2 nations contributed to the successful deployment of centrimetric radar. I was aware of Mosquitos being fitted with American radars later in the war but I wasn't aware that, although produced in America, much of the technology, including the cavity magnetron and receiver components, originated in the UK.
There are 2, somewhat related, negatives to the book. Firstly, the author wastes far too much time providing background context of what was happening during the war as we trot along the timeline of the Tizard Mission. By all means provide some explanation but some of the background goes on for entire chapters. If someone's interested in the Tizard Mission, they probably have a good handle on the rough timelines for things like the Battle of Britain. The second negative is that I'd prefer to have more technical meat in the book, particularly some comparison of equivalent developments in other nations. We keep hearing how revolutionary the cavity magnetron was in 1940 but there's precious little support for the claim other than a couple of quotes (I believe it was vital...and revolutionary, indeed its derivatives (operating on pretty much the same principle) still power millions of microwave ovens to this day.
Definitely worth the read but for me it simply was an introduction to the topic. I now want to read more detail about the events described, and so have ordered Taffy Bowen's "Radar Days" (Taffy was the "father" of airborne radar leading a small team to create the first metric wavelength system, and then spent much of the war in the US helping drive development of the centrimetric systems).
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
That looks awesome!
- Thread starter
- #6,168
turned up in the mail today.
Aaron Brooks Wolters
Brigadier General
Nice one Wayne!
Picked these 3 up in a used book store in Ithaca, New York. $12.00 each...not bad. And just by happenstance next to the one in the series that Wayne just received! Weird.
- Thread starter
- #6,175
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Robert Porter
Senior Master Sergeant
Err SWMBO not SMWBO?
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Nice fellas!
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- #6,180
Good stuff Paul.
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