On Wave and Wing: The 100 Year Quest to Perfect the Aircraft Carrier Hardcover – February 27, 2017

The title lead me to expect a more technological discussion, even as I knew the length meant it wouldn't be detailed. It is really a shallow summary of battles, with too little technology and too much politics, especially post-WW II.As an example: page 55 has a picture of a plain landing on a British carrier sometime during WW II, with a most intriguing "mechanical landing signal device" prominent. There is no other mention of this anywhere. There is a later abbreviated discussion of the 1950s mirror landing system with a throwaway off-hand reference to the WW II Japanese light landing system, again without any explanation. Steam catapults are described as superior to hydraulic without saying why, and there is no discussion of catapult (non)-usage in WW II.No discussion of the American (and British?) pilots taking their signal to take off from a flight deck crewman (the "shooter") while Japanese pilots made their own decisions, as they did on landing instead of relying on the LSO paddles.No discussion of elevators, especially the differences between center and edge, how that impacted flight operations, or how the Essex's folding edge elevator was used or what difference it made.No discussion of the different carrier design philosophies of the British (armored and two fully-enclosed hangar decks because they operated within range of land attacks and surface ships), American (wooden flight decks to reduce top weight, hangar deck for repairs and pre-flight engine warm-up, full deck load launch) and Japanese (enclosed double hangar bays so all engine warmup was on the flight deck, requiring two separate launch waves), or how this affected operations.The discussion of angled decks almost entirely neglects the difference in operation tempo. Straight decks mean a carrier can either land or launch, and launch requires a slow spotting process in the absence of catapults. Angle decks allow launching and landing simultaneously, and steam catapults mean you don't need to waste time spotting the heaviest planes furthest back for a longer take-off run.No discussion of the huge safety advantages of jet fuel over aviation gas.The shift from piston propeller to jet planes ignores the distinction that piston engines could throttle up much faster on a go-round than jets, so prop planes cut the power before trapping while jets throttle up.All in all, I am disappointed. If you want just a very general overview with little technical discussion, it's a decent first book. I'd put it in the category of a 4th grade history book, with space only for dates of battles and names of kings, and maybe a short paragraph on how firearms or steam changed warfare.

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy let the world know the age of the battleship was over and the age of the aircraft carrier had begun. For the next four years, no ships had greater significance in the Pacific War than aircraft carriers, a position they still maintain to this day.From their very humble beginnings in the pre-World War I years, all the way through the continuing conflicts in the Middle East, Barrett Tillman gives a concise history of the ships which have changed the face of naval warfare and become the ultimate show of force on the high seas. The first attempts to launch an aircraft from a ship took place in 1910 and it wasn't until 1917 that the first carrier was launched. Since that time, there have been myriad changes, innovations, and upgrades to both the ships and the planes which they carry. From the earliest biplanes through today's drones and all-purpose aircraft, Tillman tells a tale of trial and error as the world's navies have aimed to maximize the carrier's effectiveness and enable it to carry out any offensive mission. The carriers themselves have changed tremendously as well: angled flight decks, better crew accommodations, nuclear power and increased safety measures are just some of the differences chronicled here. Since the vast majority of all carriers ever built have been American ones, the book focuses primarily on the American side of things, but there is good representation of the British and Japanese, along with information on other countries such as France, India, Russia and China.Now, a book about aircraft carriers wouldn't be complete without talking combat, and while all the battles in the Pacific in World War II could take up hundreds of pages by themselves, Tillman has given a condensed telling of the major ones. The conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East, along with smaller ones like the Falklands War and the Indo-Pakistani War, get their share of ink as well.The book contains pictures throughout, interspersed with the text. To me, this was one of the highlights as they really helped show how the aircraft carrier and its planes have evolved over the years. There's a section of color photographs as well, mostly of post-World War II planes and ships. One of the final bits in the book is a listing of movies which have featured aircraft carriers in some capacity. Tillman's analysis of some, while not exactly the same as Siskel and Ebert, certainly made me chuckle as he takes Hollywood to task.Barrett Tillman has been writing books on naval aviation for many years, and his knowledge and expertise on the subject shine through repeatedly. Another job well done, but then, I didn't expect anything less.

At first glance, it might seem that naval aviation has been covered so extensively and by so many outstanding historians that it is hard to justify yet another book on the evolution of the aircraft carrier. That is, until one reads Barrett Tillman's latest book, On Wave and Wing. Having first made his name nearly a half-century ago with what is still the definitive history of the Douglas SBD Dauntless, Tillman has produced a succession of outstanding works on various aspects of naval aviation, naval aircraft, specific wars and campaigns, and military affairs. This book shows that he has not lost his touch for blending first-rate research, keen insight, and clear, accessible prose to produce a book that is both definitive and fascinating. In a year of exceptional naval aviation studies--VAdm Robert Dunn's Gear Up, Mishaps Down, and Robert "Boom" Powell's Wave-Off! come immediately to mind--Barrett Tillman has produced a standout work, one belonging in the collections of anyone interested in the development of the carrier, its role in war, and its place in America's national security strategy. Bravo Zulu!

Misleading title. I was hoping for more specifics on the evolution in design as aircraft carrier devoploment progressed. I wanted more detail regarding changes in hangar deck design, engine development, hull shape, armor, defensive capabilities, etc.

:)

The title byline of "The 100 Year Quest to Perfect the Aircraft Carrier" leads one to expect discussions of technological and strategic developments across a century, however the actual content is more of a sketchy tour through the first 60 years followed by overmuch detail of US-centric operations in the cold-war and contemporary eras. As an example, the author remarks that at the outbreak of WW2 the Japanese navy is the world leader in tactical use of aircraft carriers, but does almost nothing to explain how this situation arose or prior developments in Japan. Similarly it is noted that the slanted flight-deck was begun in the UK, but little is made of what inspired it, and much attention is devoted to subsequent US adoption. The development of catapult launching, a pivotal technology for carriers, is almost entirely absent. Conversely some late-era individual US airplane missions are given several pages of description more suited to an action-novel, and while doubtless significant to the participants involved, the items highlighted seem to make no contribution to carrier development in any wider sense. There are also some opinionated statements about navy policy (the author generally uses "the navy" to refer to the US only, clearly aiming at his home audience) which would be better made by outlining the pertinent facts and allowing the reader to draw conclusions rather than ramming home a personal opinion.Overall, there are some interesting nuggets, but the book falls far short of the magisterial objective the title suggests. It's probably worth 3 stars generally, but I've knocked it down one because of this gap between the expectation created and content actually delivered.