AeroFile
Thunderbolt & Lightning
The History of Aeronautical Namesakes
ISBN 978-0-9732020-2-1
Thunderbolt & Lighting -- The History
of Aeronautical Namesakes is
designed to explore 15 aircraft named either
“Thunderbolt” or “Lightning” from all over the world,
from 1932 up to present day.
It is a chronicle of these aircraft, and explores the development of the
aircraft and their histories.
Thunderbolt & Lightning – The History of
Aeronautical Namesakes is arranged in a similar fashion to my other AeroFile
works, and is divided into two main sections, these being Thunderbolt
and Lightning. Each of these
sections features aircraft namesakes of that name – either “Thunderbolt” or “Lightning”,
or the English translations and/or variations of such. For example, Thunderbolt contains the
Saab AJ 37 Viggen (Thunderbolt), while Lightning contains the
Kawanishi N1K Shiden (Violent Lightning).
In addition, two Appendices are included at the end of the work – one dealing
with aircraft projects that went as far as the mock-up stage, but were not
built, and another detailing the aircraft included in the book that are
preserved today.
Thunderbolt & Lightning – The History
of Aeronautical Namesakes arranges
each of the aircraft chronologically within the sections by the first flight
date of each aircraft. Each aircraft listing features the following sections:
Development; Service History; Variants;
Summary; Disposition; and Specifications.
The Development
section chronicles the development of the aircraft, as well as the construction
and test flying of the prototypes. This
section also contains the histories of the production aircraft, and their
developments and variants. Service
History details the production aircraft’s operational career, from initial
entry into service through to phase-out.
The Variants section records all of the known variants for
the individual aircraft – both built and projected – detailing each of the
differences from one version to another.
Where known, production totals for that variant are included as
well. The Summary section gives
an overview to the aircraft’s development history and operational career, and
explains any name and/or designations used in the main part of the text. In the Disposition section, the known
fate and/or whereabouts of the surviving examples – if any – of the aircraft
type are listed. Finally, each
aircraft’s Specifications are listed – this being in a separate text box
at the end of each chapter. The
specifications listed are: Country of
Origin; Aircraft Type; Dimensions; Powerplant; Performance; Weights; Crew;
Armament; Number Built; Operators; and In Service dates. As well, where multiple aircraft variants or
types were built, the specifications for the individual aircraft version or
variant displayed is mentioned.
Also, each chapter is
headlined by up to three black and white photographs of that particular aircraft
type,
depending
on the length of the chapter.
As
of
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© David R Townend 2012