Midland/Ian Allan Publishing

British Airliner Prototypes Since 1945

by  Stephen Skinner

Reviewed By  Stephen Bierce, IPMS# 35922

MSRP: $56.95 ISBN: 1-85780-299-3 Available from Specialty Press - Website: www.specialtypress.com As the Second World War was ending, and for the first years after the end, the Brabazon Committee met to plan the subsequent path of the British aeronautical industry. With the nation's geography it became clear that the postwar economy depended on air travel and other commercial uses of air transport. This book details the journey of commercial aircraft development that began with the Brabazon Committee and concentrates specifically on over thirty airliner programs and the initial planes in each. The book begins with the first postwar airliners-derivatives of wartime bomber designs: the Avro Tudor (from the Lincoln); the Vickers Viking (from the Wellington); the Handley Page Hermes (from the Halifax). From there the evolution of British civil air transport goes through such familiar planes as the Comet, the Britannia, the Vanguard, the Trident, and the One-Eleven before climaxing with Concorde and the BAe 146. And also a number of obscure and even peculiar machines of lesser success. (This era came to a close recently when BAe Systems, the successor to British Aerospace and its many previous component companies, divested from Airbus to abandon the civil aircraft business.) Wartime technological progress meant a radical shift in focus by aircraft designers around the world: piston engines were giving way to turbine power; pressurized cabins and de-icing systems opened more of the sky to air traffic; new instruments and radar meant changes in cockpit layouts and procedures; sophistication in general drove capabilities-and costs-and risks-up and up. The prototypes, the trial aircraft of each program, did the grunt work of proving the new technology. Some of these planes were very successful and led to profitable airliners. Others failed in one form or another…some even bringing down the companies from which they came. Several of these planes crashed in test flights. Most were scrapped. One was wrecked on the ground by a terrorist bomb attack. Some had lives after the test programs were complete, and a number (including all three British Concorde prototypes) have been preserved in museum collections. This book encapsulates the stories of these prototype planes and includes dozens of archival photos (most in color!), airbrush profiles, advertising art, cutaway drawings and diagrams and even a list of survivor airframes and their locations. While some of these planes were never replicated as scale model kits, some that have been were patterned after the prototype versions, so this book is useful in that respect. Highly Recommended. Thanks to IPMS/USA and Marie Ray of Specialty Press for my review copy. To buy a copy, or to get more information about this and other books in the product line, call 1-800-895-4585 or visit www.specialtypress.com