Description
Book SynopsisFlying Camelot brings us back to the post-Vietnam era, when the US Air Force launched two new, state-of-the art fighter aircraft: the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
It was an era when debates about aircraft superiority went public—and these were not uncontested discussions. Michael W. Hankins delves deep into the fighter pilot culture that gave rise to both designs, showing how a small but vocal group of pilots, engineers, and analysts in the Department of Defense weaponized their own culture to affect technological development and larger political change.
The design and advancement of the F-15 and F-16 reflected this group''s nostalgic desire to recapture the best of World War I air combat. Known as the Fighter Mafia, and later growing into the media savvy political powerhouse Reform Movement, it believed that American weapons systems were too complicated and expensive, and thus vulnerable. The group''s leader was Colonel John Boyd,
Trade Review
In this lively, absorbing account, Hankins demonstrates the influence of a specific culture that celebrated the fighter pilot as a "knight of the air" who thrilled to aerial combat.
* Foreign Affairs *
[Dr. Hankins] writes in an engaging and accessible way that makes some occasionally highly-technical discussions quite lucid and illuminating.
* Sir Richard Williams Foundation *
Flying Camelot, he has written a superlative, accessible, and balanced study of the influence Boyd and his acolytes had on the US Air Force (hereafter "Air Force") and national defense establishment in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
* Michigan War Studies Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. The Fighter Pilot with a Thousand Faces
2. You Can Tell a Fighter Pilot (But You Can't Tell Him Much)"
3. What We Mean When We Say "Fighter"
4. "The Right Fighter"
5. "The Lord's Work"
6. Writing Heresy
7. "Zealots of the Classic Variety"
8. Kicking Vietnam Syndrome
Conclusion
