TSR2 book

[harrier]

Has anyone seen John Forbat's book on TSR.2 Navigation and Weapon Delivery?

See:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TSR2-Navigation-De...1517033-3666250

He also has a book on Vickers missiles. Sound interesting, but should I buy?

[GeorgeC]

I have seen a copy.  As I recall it was a discussion of the various avionics projects he was involved in which lead to and from the TSR2, rather than a detailed discussion of the system itself.  No doubt an interesting read with some very useful detail, but I put it back on the shelf.  I would take a browse through a copy first to see if it is what you are after.  

[harrier]

Thanks for that. Can I ask where you saw it?

[GeorgeC]

Copies in Motor Books and Foyles, off the Charing Cross Road, London.  Sorry to be quite so negative about it - it might just be me.

[harrier]

Thanks. Honest negativity welcome before parting with cash!

I was in both last week and did not see it. Maybe all gone already. I'll take a butcher's next time.

[overscan]

Its mis-sold via the title, but its very interesting in its own right.

[DamienB]

Sadly the TSR2 in the title and on the cover is an obvious bit of bait and fully half of the book has nothing to do with the aircraft at all. That first half is very interesting reading if you are interested in the problems of navigation and can handle the complexities but it can make very dry reading. The more interesting chapter titles are followed by infuriatingly brief chapters! The second half of the book is about the various Vickers guided weapons projects and because there's more of them, it covers them in less detail - but still an impressive amount.

There's a lot of really good stuff in here if you're interested in how they developed the avionics and tackled the huge problems of high speed low level navigation to a far away target before the days of GPS, and the similarly tricky problems of hitting a target with a missile, but it strikes me that the publishers have used the TSR2 angle in an attempt to sell the book and this is going to cause a negative impression to many when the book really has a broader remit.

For modellers interested in diagrams or photos there are only one or two items of interest that you wouldn't find elsewhere.

[GeorgeC]

Oh good - it wasn't just me then.

[XV107]

No, not just you, George...

It's an interesting enough book in many regards, but the publishers deserve criticism for the way in which they've titled the book - some might go so far as to suggest that this was done cynically.

I suspect that some readers, having shelled out £17.99 for what is a reasonably slim and poorly-illustrated paperback (with more photos inside of the Rapier SAM than the TSR2...) will be irate if they've done so without looking inside the book before buying it.

The full title of TSR2: Precision Attack to Tornado suggests something other than two (out of 15) chapters dealing with the TSR 2 project and 13 dealing with the systems developed for the aircraft.  It gives the would-be reader no clue that Chapter 16 is broken down into four sections, namely:

16.1 The light 'Ack Ack' project
16.2 Small Long Range Period Anti-Tank Guided Weapon with Back Scatter Guidance
16.3 Preliminary Study of a 35 Mile Range Artillery System
16.4 Air-to-Air Weapon against Mach 3 Bomber at 80,000ft

If you want a new insight into the TSR2 programme and how it led to the Tornado, this isn't the book for you. I bought it fully aware of what it wasn't (if you see what I mean), because all 16 Chapters appeared to contain things of interest for er... 'job-related matters', but I fear that there may be a number of TSR2 fans who get this for Christmas and who are rather disappointed when they read what a well-intentioned relative/friend sent to Santa, misled by the title.