This is another in the superb 'Secret Weapons' series and concentrates this time on British projects in Hypersonics, ramjet power and missiles. Of all of these, the missile ones have the greatest percentage of projects actually reaching fruition with the others basically languished due to lack of funds, failure of the base ideas or a lack of sufficiently advanced technology.

The fourth of the British Secret Projects series, it goes into great detail on each of the various projects. Though in political decline, the time after WWII was still a high point in their technological abilities. It wasn't until the infamous White Paper of 1957 that the downward spiral of British high tech in aviation development became quite apparent as projects were cancelled or delayed left and right.

The authors covers the myriad of guided weapons first and that includes things like the Blue Steel, Red Top and Sea Dart weapons that did make it through to become very successful; though most were never used in combat. The full range of SAMs planned for the times is also covered. In this regard, it ties in somewhat with Ramjets as the Bloodhound range of surface to air missiles was powered by this type of engine once sufficient speed was attained.

The book then goes into the most interesting (to me) part and that is on hypersonic vehicles. These are Mach 5 and above projects, none of which went much beyond the paper proposals. Many of these vehicles are shown in model form and are really quite interesting in their own right.

Overall, a fascinating read on what could have been and how the British aerospace industry was thinking over the last 50 years or so. Of course, there is much more to the book than what brief glimpses I have provided in this article. If you have the fascination that I have with these sorts of things, then this is a book you simply must have.

January 2008

Review book courtesy of Specialty Press , where you can order your copy of this and many other superb aviation and modeling books. Visit their website at the link above or call them at 1-800-895-4585

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