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Killer Rays is the definitive work on the history of the U.S. Navy's only operational delta-wing aircraft, the revolutionary Douglas F4D Skyray and its more advanced variant, the F5D Skylancer. Author Mark Frankel unlocks secrets of delta-wing design and covers the intense rivalry between the Navy's F4D Skyray and Air Force's F-102 Delta Dagger in the 1950s. This book chronicles the development of the Skyray from concept to first prototype, flight testing, carrier qualifications, and operational history. It also explains how initial engine problems nearly caused the failure of the F4D, and how it was ultimately saved. The author accessed a wealth of Douglas Aircraft photos, models, artwork, engineering drawings, and related material including transcripts of conversations with Chief Designer, Ed Heinemann and Configuration Engineer, R.G. Smith. As a result, Killer Rays covers, in vivid detail, all aspects of F4D production, flight testing, world speed and time-to-climb records, plus new, never-before-seen aspects of NASA F5D operations, giving the reader the inside story on two significant Cold War U.S. Navy interceptor designs.
- Sales Rank: #1085583 in Books
- Published on: 2010-08-30
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 11.00" h x .63" w x 8.50" l, 2.38 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 240 pages
Review
"Overall, this is an excellent book on the Skyray, one which has been needed for quite some time." (Chris Banyai-Riepl Internet Modeler 2010-09-01)
"Overall, it is yet another of those aviation books that the enthusiast must have on the shelf. Specialty Press has hit on the magic that is required to produce a fine reference book like this one. It is fun to read, has great photos and adds to one's knowledge of the subject. Like all their books, it is most highly recommended." (Modeling Madness 2010-09-01)
"In this reviewer's opinion, this is the most definitive book to date on the Skyray." (Ed Kinney IPMS 2010-10-01)
"So treat yourself to loads of fascinating fun – and grab Mark Frankel's terrific tome. Strongly recommended." (David Veres Military Aircraft Monthly 2010-11-01)
"This book is an excellent look at the 471 Skyrays and combines very good text, excellent photo reproduction, lots of color profiles, and interviews with pilots to create a very worthwhile volume." (Air Classics 2011-02-01)
"Killer Rays is an excellent example of modern aircraft biography with a fine photo selection and artwork to complement an equally excellent text." (Peter Mersky The Hook 2011-01-01)
"This is an extensive historical account of the two types, backed up iwth a lot of technical data and photographs. It is probably about as detailed as any modeler will need." (Model Airplane International 2011-03-01)
"Killer Rays is an excellent example of modern aircraft biography, with a fine photo selection and artwork to complement an equally excellent text." (Peter Merksy Naval Aviation News 2011-07-01)
From the Back Cover
In the 1950s, Killer Rays were lethal weapons seen strictly in science fiction movies. To an enemy intruder of U.S. airspace at the time, the sight of bat-wing Douglas Skyrays climbing into the stratosphere to attack and destroy their foe would have indeed seemed like science fiction. However, by 1955, it was scientific fact that this jet-powered delta-wing interceptor was about to become the U.S. Navy’s latest lethal weapon. Author and former Navy JAG Mark Frankel has accessed a wealth of Skyray photos, artwork, engineering drawings, and related material including actual transcripts of conversations with Chief Engineer Ed Heinemann. Covering development of the F4D Skyray from mock-up to prototype, flight testing, and operational deployment, this book brings you the inside story of how problems with the Westinghouse J40 turbojet nearly cost the F4D program and how the Pratt & Whitney J57 saved it. This book features detailed documentation of Skyray production, world speed and time-to-climb records, operational F4D units, and the advanced supersonic F5D Skylancer. The use of never-before-seen photos and artwork completes this story of the world’s first carrier-based jet interceptor.
About the Author
Mark Frankel's life-long interest in aviation began as a flying-aircraft modeler in early childhood. As a teenager, he competed in American Model Association meets at the Nationals level which led to his interest in Naval Aviation. After completing law school, Mark served as a trial lawyer in Navy JAGC and earned his FAA Private License as well.
Most helpful customer reviews
36 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
FAR SHORT OF 5-STARS
By INTELTEK
Yet another example of Amazon reviews all being 5-stars, without justification. Yes, there are many photos but several of the photos allegedly showing operations at NAS Moffett are actually from operations at NAS North Island, and vice versa. Are the other photos and their info correct? Who knows? If this is wrong, then what else is wrong? Even seemingly "minor" errors have the corrosive effect of undermining confidence in an overall work.
In the listing of remaining airframes, airframe BuNo 139177 is said to be one of only seven remaining aircraft and we are told that it is currently in Test Pilot School markings, parked in Quantico, Virginia. In fact, it is today residing at the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, MCAS Miramar, in San Diego, where it has been for several years, in the markings of VMFA(AW)-115. This raises questions about the quality of research performed in this book. What about the other survivors? Can THEY be found where they are said to be located? Are THEY still painted the same?
The book has merit in covering a little-known aircraft but there was far, far too much emphasis on markings and paint schemes, both in the book and in the excerpt printed in AIR CLASSICS magazine some months back. It would have been more valuable to have a description of all of the various support equipment, some of it unique to this airframe. The very earliest models of AAM-N-7 (later AIM-9) missiles would have been informative and helpful. One photo of the F4D-1 firing two AIM-9s had a caption correctly identifying the two missiles fired as being Sidewinders, but failed to note that they were in an unusual gray paint scheme with almost invisible, small forward fins. The photo is a very rare view of very early Sidewinders, and nobody made note of it. It is as though the author and editor each had no clue.
As for markings, there is an attractive array of color schemes in side and profile views but they are split between pages of side profiles and pages of plan views, not a direct comparison. There seems to be no logical order either chronologically or by unit. There are 7 pages of small, 3-inch-long profile views with between 15-16 illustrations, per page, of F4D and F5D aircraft, yet only three pages of profile views, with no ventral views. None of the plan views include any drop tanks. For the modeler (for whom these are allegedly intended) there is no bottom view of the paint schemes carried onto the drop tanks. In all, the effort was a good thought but incompletely executed. For the historian, it is almost impossible to track the progression of markings and paint scheme changes over time. Squadrons, bases and dates are given but there are no breakouts to distinguish between the F4D snd the F5D. You, the reader, have to know how to tell the difference. Yes, there was only the production F4D-1, but the appendix SHOULD have listed the few XF4D-1s and the F5D-1 Skylancer.
Incredibly, even though the intro of the book tells us that there was unusual and outstanding access to the airframe for one of the major contributors of photos, there are virtually no photos of the cockpit interiors, other than some mockups and one that showed a pre-production cockpit and had a caption specifically telling you that it was substantially different from production models! One of the technical drawings showing features of the plane has no text to explain what each of the numerical indexes actually are. Nice drawing , but virtually useless as information. Another photo, which was also part of the book excerpt in the magazine article, showed all of the ground equipment associated with the Skyray, but none of it is identified and there is no recognition that the photo also includes all of the different armament.
There is discussion of the 20mm cannon ports being faired over on some aircraft, when the guns were not used, but there was no photo to highlight the panel with the guns, much less the blank-out panel in its place. I had to take my own photos before seeing where and how this was done! The bottom line is that when I have to go to another source for info that SHOULD be in a book, that book does NOT rate 5-stars. There is also no page or listing for any specifications for ANY model, and although there was only the F4D-1 production model and the F4D-2/F5D-1, which did not go into production, there were various engines involved and the XF4D-1, F4D-1, F5D-1 aircraft models. There are the comparisons to the F-102 AND the F-106, but there are no specification tables that conveniently compare the three. The one bright spot is the mention of the test aircraft flying the J79 later to become famous in the F4H/F-4 Phantom II but, again, no specifications for direct comparison.
There are a lot of photos in the book but many of them are not all that revealing, and the downside is that there are too few detail photos of specific parts. There are no photos showing the 20mm cannons, how they were loaded, their ammo shell ejection chutes and the deflector tabs on them, only one small photo of the radar, no close-ups of the unique arresting hook gear and tail bumper. In fact, there were more detailed views of the F-102 and F-106 weapons suite than of anything on the F4D-1! No close-ups of the missile rails or the Sidewinders, themselves, no close-ups of the rocket pods. The only part of the aircraft components that got any real treatment was the various engines, which were covered in detail. However, as with several of the aircraft shots, where somebody cropped noses, tails and wingtips, many of the engine photos were so badly cropped that you could not identify the different models. The captions were very poor and many shots of the engines were all from the same angle. The ID of the engines was hopelessly confused and several of the very nice drawings were cropped to the point of being useless. One photo of the engines was positioned horizontally when it should have been printed vertically, thus throwing off the orientation. It is absolutely ridiculous--and inexcusable--to have to keep turning books in order to get the proper view of improperly-positioned photos.
In two examples of poor attention to detail, there are several photos that are completely uncaptioned. Pages 69-71 show numerous construction photos but you are told absolutely nothing about them, other than the first photo caption that identifies them as photos of the construction of the first production aircraft. They don't even seem to be in order and nothing is called out, as to identifying parts, subassemblies, or what is being done. Some are too small to really see much of anything. Photos should be in a book to illusrtate something, to enlighten and inform the reader, not just to take up space .and look impressive by their sheer presence and quantity. In some cases, as on page 107, there are two color photos that, except for the position of the single pilot in one and the two pilots in the second, reveal eactly the same airplane in the same place and time, One of the photos could have been done away with and the surviving example enlarged, or replaced by something else. The caption doesn't even mention the missile armament shown.
On page 25, there are no less than 12 small photos showing the different modifications to the tail, to address tail "buzz" on the XF4D-1, but that term is not defined or explained and there is no detailed description for the differences, when they were employed or why they dailed to work. The caption says that the problem was "never completely resolved," implying that it continued to plague the production F4D-1, yet the collection of photos does not identify the final version and how it compared. The next several pages, in fact, only show XF4D-1s, so there is no way to quickly compare these views with the production model that was settled on. The point is, although it is nice to have the historical context of how the aircraft was developed, the value of this information is reduced or lost entirely if you failed to put it in the proper context.
As for the mention of aircraft, I do agree with other reviewers that it is nice to have have not only the F-102 and F-106 story, along with the XF-102 and even the XF-92. I definitely DO appreciate the historical context but, here again, there was a failure to follwo through. The captions of the XF-102 photos talk about the application of Whitcomb's area-rule concept which, quite frankly, saved the F-102 program and the ensuing F-106. The problem is that this book does not mention anything about the area rule and the supersonic nature of the F4D-1 Skyray. Was it applied, or not? If so, where and how?
Maybe it is in the text of the book. Maybe I'll find it if I read more deeply but, to be quite honest, I gave up on this book after encountering all of the items noted above. It looks great, at first glance, but there is a lot missing that should be here, and enough errors to make me question whether it is a good investment of my time to bother going further. I lost confidence in the accuracy. The FJ-4 Fury, in a later chapter, is written as F4J. Ok, "minor" issue, unless you know about this kind of stuff and wonder if the author really does? Does the editor? What was the competency level here? Can I trust anything else? For those who think this is just being picky, I constantly argue that it is anything but. On page 29, there is a photo of an F4D-1 next to an F7U Cutlass. One caption, for four photos, mentions absolute no details. The Cutlass is ignored. Is it just an oversight, or is it that nobody KNOWS what the other aircraft is. It was another tailless design and yet it didn't even deserve mnention?
Then there are the ccntinual production problems noted with Specialty books. Photos on both sides of the sheet containing pages 33 and 34 had strange white streaks in the photos. Are they in the original photos, or a production problem? If in the originals, they should have been noted and the photos justified on the basis of their historical merit, despite quality issues. Otherwise, it looks like bad production quality and something that the author and editor just didn't care about. Other pages in my copy were badly wrinkled, including one that was so bad that the white paper showed through the black ink.
A final note on photos. It is nice to see pretty photos of paint schemes, but I find much more value in those showing weapons being loaded/unloaded, fuel being pumped, engines being changed or serviced, inspections being carried out, servicing panels open. In short, I come away from this book without a single photographic view of the landing gear and bays, the gun bays, ammo chutes, electrical panels, hydraulics oxygen system, etc. The painting of the cutaway of the interior of the plane (which, again, had no call-outs) was not even included in the book. In short, there seemed to be almost an obsession with colors and markings, but no attention to what is under the skin on this aircraft. If space was an issue, they should have cut some of the clutter or photos of other planes and devoted that same space to details of THIS aircraft. On page 74, there is a such a maintenance type photo, but the camera is too far away to far away and the image too fuzzy to make out any detail, while the background is too cluttered for any specifics to be picked out. More photos from this maintenance evolution at Edwards AFB, with more close-ups and detail would have been precisely what the book needs. Again, it was a taste of what COULD have been and highlights more about the shortcomings of the book.
By the way, for purposes of full disclosure, I obtained a review copy of this book from Specialty. I did not publish a review and I understand that I am no longer eligible for free review copies because they have changed their policy and decided that they will only permit "media outlets" to have access to such copies. I did try to tell them that there were problems with this book, as there have been with almost all other review copies I recently obtained. They did not seem interested in the details of what is wrong with many of their books. My assumption is that they only wish to see positive reviews and do not want to hear negative feedback, even if it is reasoned and constructive. I will no longer purchase Specialty books unless I see them in a store and can assess them in detail before purchase, and I asked them not to send the last two books requested, once I was informed of their new policy. They did not wish to pay for return of those two books. I saw one of them in a bookstore and noted several areas about which I was not pleased. I just won't be buying anything else from Specialty, primarily because they do not care to listen to their readers. If you think the Skyray book deserves 5-stars or you are a big fan of Specialty, you have every right to continue believing in them and rating this book at 5 stars. I don't agree, for the reasons cited above. Readers who don't know about the Skyray but have an interest need to be advised of the issues noted. Those who expect certain things from Specialty in their other products also need to know what to expect with the printing and paper defects that appear to be a consistent quality issue that I have been unable to get the publisher to even recognize as a problem, much less to address. Amazon also needs to be aware of this and to understand that I am reluctant to buy Specialty products online: you cannot assess the book beforehand because the publisher will not allow you to see the even a glimmer of the contents and the production problems are so common and widespread that you virtually have to inspect each copy, page by page, to ensure that there are no wrinkled pages, streaked photos or other printing and production problems. This is inexcusable and completely unacceptable for books costing this much. Deal with the production quality problems or expect to lose the true enthusiast who actually appreciates quality and is willing to pay for excellence but demands nothing less. You cannot have it both ways. If you charge high prices, you can only expect high standards to be demanded. I, for one, do not accept that just because there are few books on the F4D Skyray, that the fans of military aviation should accept the shortcomings in a book like this and give it a 5-star pat on the book, just because it showed up.
I really did look forward to this book with eager anticipation but it disappointed me greatly, on several levels. It had great potential as a definitive work on the F4D Skyray but failed to deliver. If you need to go to other sources for comparative specifications or to verify the designation for an engine, or you can't trust the accuracy of where certain photos were taken and their timeline, then the book in question does not merit five stars. I had initially given it two stars and really had to struggle with increasing that to three. There is no way I could justify or explain a five-star rating. The book simply falls short in too many ways.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Definitive F4D Skyray book
By Rad63
This book is a very complete look at the Douglas F4D Skyray and the F5D Skylancer with chapters on its Air Force competitor the F-102 and F-106, the original delta wing production fighters for the Navy and Air Force.
There are chapters about the origin of the Skyray including earlier concepts leading to the aircraft, flight test programs, the engine story, production, flight characteristics and systems, , development, training and reserve units,test and research centers and a chapter on the F5d Lancer. The entire operational history is presented. There are also chapters on the XF-92,F-102 and F-106 series. There are 110 side profiles, 26 dorsal views and literally hundreds of photos, many in color varying in size but frequently two to a page. The photographs are excellent. Interesting drawings and documents are also presented.
If you have an interest in the Skyray, this book is definitive and additionally presents sections about the Convair series delta-wing competitors..
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent reference
By Graeme Buckley
I brought this along with the Schiffer book on the F7U Cutlass, and the contrast is striking. The Cutlass title was disappointing, but this one is excellent
This book provides excellent context of the whole F4D-1/F5D-1 program, i.e. why the US Navy needed an interceptor rather than another fighter, and the comparisons with the Convair F-102/106 program are insightful. The Westinghouse engine saga is also covered, looking at problems in the engineering culture and the wide separation of design and production facilities.
The lengthy business of getting from initial design to operational acceptance is covered, in summary, rather than in detail, but readily understandable.
The operational history is covered in terms of incidents since the F4D never actually entered combat or served with any other than the US Navy or Marines.
There is good coverage of all the F4D-1 units both front and secondline, with both descriptions and colour profiles.
Photos are of good quality and well reproduced.
The little known F5D-1 Skylancer is well covered too with detailed descriptions of how it was evolved from the F4D-1, trying to correct the problems. Some measure of the success is the F5D being 63% faster on the same power. The NACA / NASA use is covered esp the Dynasoar abort profile and the vortex research.
Good book, worth the price.
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