Tag: Aircraft

Review: Boeing 737

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Boeing 737: The World’s Most Controversial Commercial Jetliner

Graham Simons brings his aviation writing talents to work on the archetypical airliner, the 737. His book is fittingly named Boeing 737. In it, he tells the full long story of a plane that was at first believed to be an ugly duckling nobody wanted, that ironically survived in its early period due to a government contract, became the world-beating airliner extraordinaire, and got pushed forward past its diminishing returns in the present.

The early 737 survived on exports as union requirements for three crew despite the aircraft being designed only for two from the start, with United the only major American operator. Despite this slow start, it became the centerpiece of a company.

I would say that this book is excellent but has the problem of being broader than it is deep. For instance, we get long writeups of individual operators complete with huge photos and detailed descriptions of individual accidents like the Aloha Airlines loss of the roof. Yet, the word “deregulation” (the Airline Deregulation Act and its equivalents internationally) only appears once. As this was what propelled the 737 to its heights, such a context would be much appreciated. But as a coffee table book this is wonderful.

Review: The Quiet War

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The Quiet War

I must confess by this point I read The Quiet War just because I wanted to see just how far down Mark Hewitt’s Duncan Hunter series could go. Two chapters in, I was not disappointed. We get a padded flashback chapter where every single technical name is spelled out in full like it was a late Gold Eagle book, and then an example of the gargantuan homophobia the series became infamous for. And another. And another. The “flashback” chapters reach double digits, treating us to such horrors from the main character’s perspective as The Beatles.

This is not a book about a super-plane, even though there’s a chapter where it effortlessly crushes its opposition (like it has always done in the series). This is a book about gay communists. This sounds like some online insult, but it’s actually the factual book subject matter (besides said squash and a past article about the main character finding a treasure chest.) Tirades about how a cabal of gay communists were steered by the USSR into sabotaging America make up most of this. And the previous book. And…

So this isn’t even amusingly bad. It’s just on repeat.

The Dumbest Air Disaster

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In 2024, Air Serbia Flight 324 (barely) made it off the ground and sailed into history as quite possibly the dumbest pilot error air disaster of all time.

The crash thankfully didn’t result in loss of life, although it could very well have been catastrophic.

At first glance, this was like Comair 5191 or Singapore Airlines 006 where a plane moved to a wrong, too-short runway and tried to take off from it. Except here the ATC caught them having moved to the middle of the runway instead of the end and warned them. They acknowledged-and then decided to try and take off from the half-runway anyway.

At least PIA 8303 was already in the air and trying to land. This was safe on the ground when the crew decided to do something as risky as it was dumb. Fortunately, the only casualties were the hull of the plane and the lessor airline’s contract with Air Serbia.

Review: She’ll Never Get Off The Ground

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She’ll Never Get Off The Ground

Robert Serling’s (yes, the brother of the Twilight Zone guy), was a guy who loved to write about airplanes. In 1971 he wrote probably the most 1971 novel possible, She’ll Never Get Off The Ground. It stars aspiring commercial pilot Dudney Devlin (yes, that name) as she tries to… GOSH, become a “WOMAN AIRLINE PILOT ?!” (save for the capitalization, the punctuation is exactly the same as it is on the cover ?!)

If Devlin was male, this would be a generic 1970s cheap thriller with “I know the designation of the wheel assembly” technical padding. If this was written and published even ten years later, it would be viewed as an anachronistic dinosaur. The International Society of Women Airline Pilots formed in 1978, and while still extremely rare then, the concept was not as inconceivable as it was in the “Mad Men Polyester Housewife Era”.

So this book could only be written and made at a very specific time, and the reasons for that were not good.

What really brought down general aviation

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I was looking at histories and such concerning the post-WW2 decline of general aviation in America. Most of the stated reasons center around costs, regulation, lawsuits, and changing demographics. None of these I’m denying were factors, even major ones. But I came across something that was very eye-opening and was not mentioned in most of the usual ones.

That was the decline in its practicality. One amusing side-part of the “flying car” discourse is that in a way, in the early postwar period, flying cars in the way we think of them kind of existed. See, in the early postwar period, as long as you could afford something that still always cost at least the equivalent of six figures today just for the airframe (ie you were a rich professional), flying in your own aircraft over the Depression-adjacent countryside was frequently the quickest and most convenient way to get from point A to point B. Whether it was for the luxury of a getaway or the necessity of business travel, there was a practical use.

Later on this eroded with two big things, which I shall provide graphical illustrations of.

Yep, better roads and better, cheaper, and more accessible commercial air travel. Which meant a lesser actual need for private planes, which naturally had giant ripple effects. At the very least it’s an underappreciated piece of the pie.

Review: Airlords of the Ozarks

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Twilight 2000: Airlords of the Ozarks

Twilight 2000 had the problem of reaching a good stopping point (escaping Europe) but then being commercially successful enough to continue. Airlords of the Ozarks is a very blatant example of how the style shifted, to the point where I once used the phrase “Arkansas vs. the Blimps” to describe other settings doing the same.

I feel now that GDW might have written itself into a corner and for better or worse had to change tack instead of copy-pasting classic adventures only in different continents. But to go from brutal survival to almost Jon Land/Mack Maloney level conflicts against airships with nuclear missiles? It may have been too far in the opposite direction. But I don’t fault them for trying.

Plus Airlords is still vastly, vastly better than the abomination that is Kidnapped!

The Italian Lesson

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What has been said, and said accurately is that drones and tactics surrounding them are advancing and moving extra-fast in Ukraine. Yet counter-intuitively, this is a case for not rushing forward with swarms. Note: It is still important, and rapidly getting C-UAS, especially hard-kill weapons and proper training, is high priority.

Because this isn’t the first time this happened. And the (often unfairly) scorned Italian military of World War II is a stark example why.

So in the 1930s, automotive and aircraft technology was indeed roaring forward at a “Moores Law For Tanks and Propeller Planes” rate. Now I’m oversimplifying, but here’s what happened: Italy didn’t have the economy or resources for multiple huge waves, so they “modernized” too early , and were left with tons of biplanes and tiny tankettes .

I remember seeing a lecture on US interwar armor where even though he didn’t mention Italy or anything similar, he did use that as a reasonable answer for why America was slow in the same period. Now I mentioned the defensive priority being higher. Anti-tank guns and AA guns even if underpowered are still going to be useful in ways strictly worse tanks are not.

Review: Skygods

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Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am

Written by aviator and former Pan Am captain Robert Gandt, Skygods is the most fun I’ve had reading a history book in quite some time. First, I want to get the small negatives out of the way: This is very much a David Halberstam style ‘History as Narrative’ book, so I’d recommend taking specific claims with even more grains of salt. That said, everything important I did find corroborating evidence for.

The good part of this “history as narrative” is well, it feels great to read, flowing smoothly and going into the minds of people in a way that Gandt can clearly write from personal experience. And what he says about Pan Am is both interesting and dismal.

Pan Am’s decline, arguably inevitably terminal, started long before Lockerbie. It started long before deregulation. The impression I got from Skygods was that Pan Am was basically to airlines what Harley Davidson is to motorcycles: A wheezing lummox with poor fundamentals whose longevity was/is due to mystique over any practical advantage. There’s also the “British Industrialization” problem Pan Am had where being the first to do big international routes meant they were stuck with the most baggage.

So this is a great book I highly recommend for anyone, not just aviation/history enthusiasts.

The UAV Illusion

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So RUSI fellow Justin Bronk has given focus to what I’ve kind of grasped but struggled to articulate myself: Small UAVs are not a panacea.

A smaller piece by the same author.

The short version is:

  • The weirdest analogy I have but one I believe is comparing FPV/etc… drones to B-17s and the like. There’s been a giant debate about the effectiveness of WW2 strategic bombing. The Western Allies had less a choice in it than one might think. Until 1944 it was the only direct offensive ability they had, and being shielded by water made it viable. Similarly, Ukraine’s use of drones, as Bronk explains, is a necessary one, just like that a result of desperate circumstance. But it’s not the circumstance and abilities that others, just like how no one had the WAllies circumstances there, will have.
  • Practical effects, which very few people are mentioning- namely, relying on drones against a force that’s spent three years optimizing against them is like relying on deep pass plays against the Lawrence Taylor Giants (ask yourself how the Joe Gibbs teams behaved offensively most of the time).
  • Finally and most crucially, Bronk brings up it’s the Walter Payton in Super Bowl XX / SA-2 not scoring that many direct kills in Vietnam problem. Which is that what’s causing drones to be effective is massive amounts of traditional weapons: Normal artillery, mines, missiles, and backed by UAVs in the traditional spotter role.

A very good splash of cold water. This isn’t to say these aren’t dangerous and won’t get better, but it helps to have perspective beyond highlight reels. Speaking of which, here’s a veteran talking about the side you didn’t see.