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Convair Advanced Designs
Consolidated Vultee, which later became Convair, built some of the world's best flying boats in the 1930s, and the world's best bombers during World War II. Convair's six-engine B-36 strategic bomber was credited with keeping the world safe during the early throes of the Cold War. But before all these great aircraft took to the skies, scores of ideas and concepts were proposed and analyzed by company management to determine if production would even be feasible.
Convair Advanced Designs is a book that brings these futuristic, but stillborn, concepts to life for the very first time. This book features many never-before-seen company photographs, models, and drawings of such futuristic concepts as a folding-rotor anti-submarine patrol bomber and a giant seaplane passenger transport launched from a high-speed rail car! Readers will also be fascinated to see how certain seemingly unbelievable designs evolved into actual production airplanes years later, such as the giant Convair Tradewind turboprop seaplane transport.
Convair Advanced Designs is a book that brings these futuristic, but stillborn, concepts to life for the very first time. This book features many never-before-seen company photographs, models, and drawings of such futuristic concepts as a folding-rotor anti-submarine patrol bomber and a giant seaplane passenger transport launched from a high-speed rail car! Readers will also be fascinated to see how certain seemingly unbelievable designs evolved into actual production airplanes years later, such as the giant Convair Tradewind turboprop seaplane transport.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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April 28, 2024
This book has been sitting in the "to-be-read" pile for awhile now and it is a very nice survey of design concepts and x-planes that will satisfy all those with a taste for the truly esoteric; particularly if you're a fan of seaplanes. I do tend to agree with the folks who have reviewed this over at Amazon that it wouldn't have hurt if this work had been fortified with some work in government and service archives, but I certainly don't regret acquiring it.
Originally written: July 30, 2016.
P.S. I would note that since Specialty Press has gone out of business in 2023, that one should not pass up the chance to purchase a reasonably priced copy if you have the opportunity, as this is likely to become an expensive collector's item.
Originally written: July 30, 2016.
P.S. I would note that since Specialty Press has gone out of business in 2023, that one should not pass up the chance to purchase a reasonably priced copy if you have the opportunity, as this is likely to become an expensive collector's item.
Displaying 1 of 1 review