Crucially, the Germans found themselves in great difficulties by having to compromise on the composition of their 100 octane C3 fuel, which caused no end of trouble by its effect on the oil system and by its adverse reaction with self-sealing fuel tanks. There is a a lot of technical detail in this book, but that is integral to the argument that the author builds: The most conspicuous successes in WWII piston engine design did not come from radical innovation, but from consistent step-wise improvement with great attention to detail.Īnd I have never seen such a detailed study of WWII aviation fuels, a surprisingly complicated subject and one that had very significant historical consequences. Crucially, in this book a wealth of new information on the design of WWII engines is considered in relation to their fuels and the available raw materials and engineering resources.

That said, if you have enough technical knowledge to begin to understand the intricacies, this is fascinating stuff and it really changes our understanding of the technical competition between these air forces. (I'm inclined to suggest Bill Gunston's Development of Piston Aero Engines, although the first print of that book was in 1993 and it may be a bit dated.) So many people may want to read a background text on piston engines first. Maybe that is something to consider for a future edition, but this book already weighs over two kilograms.

I think this book would have been more digestible for most aviation history fans if it had an introductory chapter on the structure and workings of high-performance piston aero-engines. Calum Douglas sort of expects you to know that the connecting rods of a Daimler-Benz DB601 inverted V-12 are in a fork-and-blade arrangement, and what that is. Often enough he does, but when the does not, the result can be cryptic to many readers. Within that seemingly limited scope, the author found enough new material to fill about 450 pages with often surprising information and insights.Ī word of warning: The author is an engine designer himself, and he doesn't always consider it necessary to provide technical background. That is to say, the focus is on British, American and German (single-seat day) fighter engines, with some small side-steps towards French, Italian, and Russian engines.

This is a highly detailed, rich study of the piston engines of the World War Two era, largely limited to the Western Front.

The secret race book review