可借阅:*
图书馆 | 资料类型 | 排架号 | 子计数 | 书架位置 | 状态 | 图书预约 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
正在检索... South | Book | 623.746 PEEB | 1 | Non-fiction Collection | 正在检索... 未知 | 正在检索... 不可借阅 |
链接这些题名
已订购
摘要
摘要
An aviation historian tells the story of the "Dark Eagles," airplanes that the US government developed, tested, and operated in deepest secrecy. They include the Stealth fighter/bomber, the high- altitude U-2 and its succesor the A-12; unmanned reconnaissance drones; the Soviet MiG; ultralight spy aircraft; and the Aurora space plane, which over the years has been entwined with "UFO sightings." Information comes from post- Cold War Freedom of Information Act requests and from interviews with the people who designed and tested the aircraft. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
评论 (3)
出版社周刊评论
This well-researched history of the development, testing and operational deployment of ultrasecret U.S. aircraftplanes that fly ever higher and faster, are almost invisible and can remain aloft for monthswill be of interest to general readers as well as to flight buffs. Peebles describes how the Bell XP-59A introduced jet-engine technology in the 1940s and created the concept of the ``Black'' (secret) airplane. During the 1950s, the emphasis shifted from tactical fighters to reconnaissance planes, one of which, the U-2, revolutionized intelligence-gathering. Peebles (Watch the Skies!) recounts the successful development of the Have Blue 1001, a plane virtually invisible to ground radar. He notes that the longest continuing Black Eagles aircraft program remains the test-flying of MiGs and other Soviet planestests that have brought fundamental changes in air-combat tactics and led to the establishment of the Navy's Top Gun program. The author's informative chronicle also reveals that the public's curiosity about these specialized aircraft has led to increasingly serious security problems at the two principal test sites in Nevada. Photos. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
A top-notch survey of the covert aviation programs conducted by the US military and intelligence agencies since WW II. Drawing on previously classified archives and other sources, aviation historian Peebles pieces together a fascinating story that begins with the XP-59A. This fixed-wing fighter with British- designed engines was America's first jet. Airframe flaws kept it out of production and combat, but the armed forces gained valuable experience in running secret projects with small teams at isolated test sites. Probably the best known of the so-called dark eagles were the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes developed by Lockheed's fabled Skunk Works. Less familiar craft also performed important if less glamorous services'': Model 147 drones (a.k.a. Lightning Bugs) did bomb-damage assessments and other reconnaissance missions in the unfriendly skies over Communist China and North Vietnam. Equally unheralded is the GNAT-750 UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), which the CIA has used to overfly Bosnia at relatively small cost. Not all clandestine aeronautical enterprises are developmental, as the author makes clear in his judicious review of the still unacknowledged pilot-training programs that have been conducted with the aid of captured MiGs. Nor, press reports and purported sightings by believers in UFOs to the contrary, is every rumored project a reality. Indeed, Peebles goes out of his way to put paid to any lingering notion that the Air Force has funded or even contemplated a hypersonic flying wing code-named Aurora. He then segues gracefully into an assessment of the socioeconomic credits and debits that accrue from putting strategic weapons systems under security wraps for prolonged periods. An informed and informative overviewcomplete with anecdotal detail on the venturesome souls who participatedof the undercover activities that have given America air superiority over friends and foes alike. (35 b&w photos, not seen)
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Peebles admirably assembles, from a multitude of sources, a compact complete history of U.S. programs to develop so-called black or secret aircraft. Those began with work on the first American jet, the Bell P-59, during World War II, and proceeded to include the construction of such eventual headline-makers as the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter, which distinguished itself in the Gulf War. Also covered are such lesser-known vehicles as several families of reconnaissance drones, some fast and high, some low and slow. Besides the hardware, Peebles covers the logistics, administration, and politics of keeping multibillion-dollar programs under wraps until they succeed or fail. Occasionally, such secrecy has led to fantasizing aircraft that do not exist--the demonstrably legendary Mach 5 Aurora, for example, which was a favorite of flying saucer cultists. Overall, one of the year's best additions to aviation collections. --Roland Green