American Secret Projects 3

The title of this book is very misleading. Along the way to 2008 where the book effectively ends, the authors cover the conventional airlifters, but provide an incredible inventory of the esoteric, the evolutionary dead-ends and the purely experimental.While the programs leading to the airlifters like the C-130J and the C-5 covered, the authors ventured further afield into areas such as ICBM Carriers and Carrier Onboard Delivery along with the on again, off again fits and starts of various programs of small battlefield tactical airlifters, V/STOL, nuclear powered and ultra-heavy airlift.Frankly, there is so much information that it literally took nine months to work through this book. There's a few technical issues with the book, such as on page 255 the specifications block for the Tri-engine C-XX lists four engines. And as is the bane of many others, the available specifications differ in what was listed making a direct apples to apples comparison difficult at best. None of this detracts from the overall quality of the book itself and it is magnificent addition to the "Secret Projects" series.I cannot recommend this book for a casual modeler. For a scratch-builder this book could indeed provide a fertile field for some rather outrageous builds.Overall? A conditional recommendation for skilled modelers looking to do an unconventional subject.Unequivocally and strongly recommended for anyone interested in a full history of US Tri-Service airlift and cargo aircraft since 1962 including the evolutionary dead ends.

You will not be disappointed in the immense wealth of data inherent in this book. Not only current aircraft are featured but the immense imagination of various designers and their teams who pooled their brains to design a new aircraft better than the current aircraft in their stable. Many designs found the trash bucket which was not the fault of designers but the military brass who found it extraordinary difficult to pry a few pennies from stone cold Congressmen who lacked imagination to invest a little to get a whole lot more! Sequestration imposed by hard headed Republicans hurt others seeking funding for classified aircraft to have metal cut. Even President Obama ordered Secretary Robert Gates to terminate funding for the F-22 at 187 aircraft which is something sorely needed right now. Obama wanted funds directed to Obamacare. This book is worth your money to have and hold. Do not wait too long as it will sell out fast!

I own numerous Secret Projects titles and am particularly impressed by this one. It seems like the longest in the series, with lots of information and illustrations and covers a huge breadth of projects and proposals, most of which are new to me and are certainly not covered anywhere else. The discussion of each project left me wanting more but that's a function of the book's scope. If you're at all interested in the topic, this is a fascinating read.

It's not often that a sequel meets or even exceeds expectations based on the original work, but this book simply knocks it out of the park! As a fan of the first volume covering U.S. Airlifters up to 1962, I was hoping this book would carry the story forward in the same colorful and comprehensive manner, and I was not disappointed. The reader's eye dances across each beautifully designed spread, enjoying the sometimes mindblowing photos and illustrations, then reading excellent captions and informative descriptions in the text. A veritable feast of artwork, models, tech art, and photos, all bolstered by clear, concise writing that was obviously a passion for the writers. 'Cargo Planes' may not get all the glory, but they were and always will be the veritable backbone of all military combat operations. This book is a must-have for any aviation library, and is highly recommended!

Ever since Crecy Publishing announced that they had to split the American Secret Projects volume about US airlifter designs into two volumes (ASP2, covering 1941-1961 designs, and ASP3, covering post-1961 designs) due to some previously unclassified project documents in aerospace company archival records coming to light, I had been dearly anticipating the release of this volume. because it was sure to cover unbuilt American airlifter projects like ASP2. As a matter of fact, the cover design of ASP3 was originally to be the cover design for ASP2. At long last, I finally received a copy of this volume, and after reading it slowly but surely, I have to say that this volume was surely jam-packed with drawings and artist's renderings of post-1961 US transport projects that had never been featured in published literature on American military transport planes.While Chapter 2 describes in detail the many design proposals by US aerospace companies (e.g. Lockheed, Douglas, Boeing) submitted to the USAF's CX-4/CX-HLS competition for a large heavy-lift transport that spawned the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy (the Boeing and Douglas design bids remind me of the Antonov An-124 Ruslan airlifter in the design of the tail empennage), Chapters 3 and 4 (covering V/STOL designs) were pretty jam packed with little-known projects for tiltrotor, tiltwing, and ducted fan transports (the XV-3, VZ-3, and X-18 were strictly tech demonstrators for tiltrotor/tiltwing/ducted fan tech, but are included in this book for historical relevance, while the XC-142 was the only prototype VTOL transport to reach the hardware phase) but also transport aircraft designs that could take off using lift fans. Chapter 5, like Chapter 2, is quite simple in scope, focusing on design proposals for the AMST competition that produced the YC-14 and YC-15 (neither of which left the prototype phase), the C-X competition for a C-141 replacement that led to the C-17 Globemaster III (the Boeing YC-14 and Model 1050 designs were ubiquitous for utilizing the Coanda effect [named for Romanian aeronautical engineer Henri Coanda]), and design studies for the ATCA program that produced the KC-10 tanker (technological upgrades to the C-141 and KC-135 are discussed too). Chapter 6 was pretty long chapter (48 pages) jam-packed with a vast plethora of designs for transports intended for ferrying supplies to personnel and sailors aboard US Navy aircraft carriers; only the C-2 Greyhound and US-3 Viking reached the hardware phase, and none of the designs for the Common Support Aircraft (CSA) left the drawing board, meaning that the Navy had to wait until the 2010s to pick the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor as America's next-generation COD airlifter to replace the C-2. Chapter 7 provides a pretty good overview of advanced cutting-edge designs for ultra-large airlifters, including launch platforms for air-launched ballistic and cruise missiles, giant airlifters sharing common technological traits with commercial aircraft, spanloader and flying wing civil/military transports, flatbed airlifters, and (!) nuclear-powered airlifters; the vast majority of airlifter designs in Chapter 7 had wingspans approaching or exceeding the wingspans of the TB-6 heavy bomber, Spruce Goose, A380, An-225, and Stratolaunch. Chapter 8 describes in detail transport designs optimized for carrying space rocket boosters and the Space Shuttle (the Conroy Virtus had a pretty giant wingspan of 450 feet), but also non-military transports used for carrying space launch vehicles, including an L-1011 for carrying the X-34 spaceplane, the White Knight launch platforms for SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, a 747 for carrying the LauncherOne air-launched rocket, and the Stratolaunch Roc, which recently supplanted the Spruce Goose as the biggest plane by wingspan when it first flew last year. Chapter 9 details unbuilt paper projects for improving or modifying the C-130 Hercules as well as C-130s used for testing aerospace tech (the C-130J paradoxically remains the only modernized C-130 proposal to have reached the hardware stage), while Chapter 10 discusses designs for Special Operations airlifter designs, including stealth designs conceived as part of the top secret Senior Citizen program and design studies for the Advanced Theater Transport; the Northrop Senior Citizen project was unusual for having a diamond-shaped configuration and vertical lift engines buried in the airframe, while the Boeing ATT had no tail empennage. Lastly, Chapter 10 describes various designs for new-generation transports and tanker aircraft conceived since the 1990s, including the KC-X competition for a KC-135 successor that led to the KC-46 Pegasus, the Speed Agile Concept Demonstrator, advanced VTOL rotorcraft, tactical airlifter versions of the C-17, and designs for BWB/flying wing airlifters and tankers from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.That said, I commend Cox and Kaston for publishing the second ASP volume about American airlifter projects (including designs that reached the hardware phase). While the story of US airlifter development since 1962 has been intertwined with changing geopolitics, from the Vietnam War to the Yom Kippur War to Operation Desert Storm to the Global War on Terror, which is why the KC-10, C-5, C-130, and C-17 have prolonged service lives design recent proposals for new-generation heavy-lift aircraft and flying wing tankers, the development and flight-testing of the X-47B Pegasus and MQ-25 Stingray combined with Boeing's testing of the X-48 technology demonstrator for a BWB that could be used for commercial and military purposes seem to point to the day when the USAF will field a flying wing airlifter that might carry more troops and war material than the C-5 or C-17. For anyone who follows recent US airlifter developments and remains fascinated with giant airlifter designs for the 70s and 80s, I definitely recommend this volume for noncombat military aviation gurus.

Having loved the first volume of the series, released in 2019, I had been anticipating the publication of this book, since its announcement.When it arrived, I was staggered by the sheer depth and quality of the research and the wealth of drawings and artists impressions that fill this weighty volume.Most aircraft today look so similar, but this book shows that had things been a little different, our skies could be filled with weired and wonderful military transport aircraft.I thought I knew a bit about the sort of subjects featured in this book, I was wrong! I knew about 5% (or less) of these secret projects, the rest were all new to me... something that doesn't happen very often.Buy this book and prepare to be amazed!

This book I added to m'y american aviation collection in this series.Wellresearch by the author.This collection is à must if you enjoy american aviation history.

Well worth buying, great photos and lots of very interesting info.

Excellent book, amazing range of different types, designs and areas.Recommended to aviation enthusiasts even if you consider transport aircraft not your normal bag.

Quality book, beautifully written and printed.