Tempest Aces of WW2

BOOK /PERIODICAL:	Typhoon & Tempest Aces of WW2
BY:	Chris Thomas
PUBLISHER /PRICE:	Osprey $17.95
REVIEW BY:	Tom Cleaver
NOTES:

If one includes the products of the company founded by Sir T.O.M. Sopwith - the Pup, Tripehound, Camel and Snipe, and the "British Aerospace" Tornado F.3. - it is clear that the single most-successful fighter aircraft design organization in the history of aviation is Hawker Aircraft. The descendant of Sopwith and forerunner of "British Aerospace," Hawker Aircraft designed more successful fighter airplanes that defined the state of the art at the moment of their appearance, than any other company. Almost all of these were the products of the design table of Sir Sidney Camm, whose last act as an aircraft designer was to have input to the "MRCA" (Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) of the late 1960s, which became known as the Tornado - in itself, a continuation of an old Hawker airplane name.

Camm was not the brilliant artist that R.J. Mitchell was. The Fury, the first 200 m.ph. fighter, drew on previous work extending back to the Sopwith Tabloid; the Hurricane, rather than being revolutionary like the Spitfire, was evolutionary in its design origins. The Typhoon and the Tempest - the best British strike fighter and the best air superiority fighter of the latter part of the war respectively - built on the knowledge gained with the Hurricane. Camm's other great design, the Hunter, benefitted from a similar design philosophy - though it was hobbled by official government interference in perrformance parameters. Each Hawker airplane brilliantly performed what it was supposed to do, and did so for the entire term that the underlying technology was relevant. That is a history of accomplishment anyone else in aerospace would love to look back on.

Chris Thomas' book on Typhoon and Tempest aces of the Second World War is an admirable addition to the already-admirable Osprey "Aircraft of the Aces" series. The Typhoon has been thought of by many as the least of Camm's designs, a reputation strengthened by the fact that it was put into production without benefit of the full development an advanced aircraft deserved. A famous model of the airplane is one which has on its nose the following statement: "If this engine catches fire, don't just wave your arms at the pilot, try putting the bloody thing out as well." How would you like to take an airplane into combat that needed this kind of warning? As Thomas points out, the Typhoon didn't do badly as an air superiority fighter, not to mention its starring role in providing major air support for the liberation of Western Europe.

The Tempest benefitted from the maturity of the Sabre engine, bought at high price in the operation of the Typhoon, and fully deserved its reputation as the best Allied medium-altitude air supriority fighter of the final period of the war. It was in fact the only Allied fighter that was superior to the Focke-Wulf Fw-190D-9, the best German piston-engine air supriority fighter of the war.

As with most Osprey authors, Chris Thomas has managed to zero in on the really dramatic tales about both of these airplanes, in a way that will make the reader want to go out and buy kits. His capsule biographies of Group Captain John R. Baldwin - the top-scoring Typhoon ace - and Squadron Leader David C. Fairbanks (an American!), who was the top-scoring Tempest pilot, are interesting and dramatic in their presentation. Both men excelled in an environment in which most of the units they served with suffered over 100 percent statutory-strength casualties between June 6, 1944 and May 8, 1945, an environment most Spitfire and Mustang aces never faced.

Again, highly recommended.