Despite a somewhat flippant title (Sitting Ducks and Peeping Toms), this serious, in-depth work records in remarkable detail the story of unmanned aircraft development and use by the UK since 1916. Arising from research by the legendary Professor Archibald Low into wireless control of an aircraft’s movable surfaces, in the search for an ‘aerial torpedo’ to counter the threat of Zeppelin bombing raids, it chronicles the careers of a range of pilotless aircraft whose scope will, perhaps, come as a surprise to many who still think that the era of the UAV ‘began’ with the Vietnam war.
Inevitably, given the nearly 100 years covered, the majority of the content deals with aerial targets rather than those performing today’s more active defence roles, but is no less absorbing for that, with a wide variety of subject airframes ranging from gliders to such unlikely candidates as the Avro Lincoln four-engined bomber. All the better-known types are here too, from the 1930s de Havilland Queen Bee to the post-war Jindiviks, Banshees, Shelducks and Chukars. Even more remarkably, despite many records having been lost or destroyed, the author has nevertheless managed to unearth career details of over 3,000 individual aircraft, with first flight dates, when and where used, total flying times and eventual fates.
Three final chapters deal similarly with the evolution of latter-day UAS types, from CL-89 and Phoenix up to today’s Watchkeeper, Desert Hawk, ScanEagle, Predator and T-Hawk. Valuable Appendixes deal with weapons used against the targets, the British units equipped with them, and the principal UK and overseas ranges where they have been deployed. Throughout, the book is liberally illustrated, with many of the photographs never before having appeared in print.
Unmanned aircraft have yet to attract the legion of intimate histories that exist for their manned counterparts. Perhaps one day they may; in the meantime, ‘Sitting Ducks’ will provide them with an excellent example to follow.
Sitting Ducks and Peeping Toms
By Michael I. Draper
Published 2011 by Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd (www.air-britain.com)
372 pp, illustrated, GBP52.50
ISBN 978-0-85130-407-6
[Kenneth (Ken) Munson has an illustrious background in aviation and aviation journalism. After 14 years at the UK Air Ministry, and precious experience as a staff and freelance writer, he joined ‘Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft’ in 1968, where he is currently Deputy Editor. He is sole author of over 30 aviation titles, including ‘World Unmanned Aircraft’ (1988), and has been co-author on several others, including ‘Robot Aircraft Today’ (1977) with John W. R. Taylor.
He was founder-Editor in 1994 of ‘Jane’s Unmanned Vehicles and Targets’ until March 2008, and is still a regular contributor. He is an Associate Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and in June 2007 received the UVS International award for UAS Awareness Creation. – Ed.]