A BOOK REVIEW BY WALTER J. BOYNE OF
SPLENDID VISION, UNSWERVING PURPOSE: DEVELOPING AIR POWER FOR THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE DURING THE FIRST CENTURY OF POWERED FLIGHT
The History Office
Aeronautical System Center
Air Force Material Command
Air Force History and Museums Program
United States Air Force
Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
Published by the Government Printing Office, 2003; May be ordered online at http://bookstore.gop.gov or ASC History Office Web Page at http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/ $69.00
This is a stunning tour de force, relating in 508 fact and photo filled pages the contributions made by the successive research and development organizations that originated in McCook Field during World War I and continue in full force to this day.
The book is a substantial refutation of the too often overlooked brilliance of the American military. For decades, the media, particular Hollywood films and television, have denigrated the military, preferring to run stories on $600 toilet seats. Most have been character assassinations, depicting non-commissioned officers as Sergeant Bilkos and officers as either psychotics such as the character Marlon Brando played in Apocalypse Now or incompetents such as the greedy general played by Kelsey Grammar in Pentagon Wars.
I think it is safe to say that the incredible combination of air, space and ground-based weapons that executed the Iraq War in such a brilliant manner could not have come about if the services were run by the Brando and Grammar types. To field such an array of weapons takes years of development, thousands of judgments, millions of trade-offs, long years of competition, and the provident decisions of really intelligent commanders. To bring about such a military array as was demonstrated in Iraq after no less than ten straight years of military budget cuts is little short of a miracle, a miracle that takes some explanation.
And this wonderful book will help provide that explanation, for it the takes the reader through a succession of great achievements by delineating both the event and the people behind it. You can quite literally follow the development of aeronautics from pusher biplanes to unmanned aerial vehicles in the beautifully illustrated pages. The book starts, quite properly, at the Huffman Prairie site where the Wright brothers labored in 1904 and succeeded in 1905 in creating the first truly practical aircraft. It then covers the incredible era of McCook Field-the Cradle of Aviation-where a handful of brilliant thinkers transformed American aviation from a cut and try cottage industry into a serious research and development discipline. Given the fragile basis of the aeronautical sciences in 1917, the accomplishments at McCook Field were astonishing. The pilots who flew there-such men as Shorty Schroeder, John Macready, Leigh Wade, Harold Harris, or Edwin E. Aldrin (Buzz’s father), were the astronauts of their day.
The progress started at McCook picked up speed after the transfer of operations to Wright Field in 1927 (it became Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1948). Despite the limited budget and the dismal effects of the great depression, Wright Field became the start point for many great aircraft developments. But more important, it was also the start point for whole new aviation disciplines, born in the procurement and engineering sections. There were established the Aircraft Branch, the Powerplant Branch, and a host of others, all of which set standards for air force requirements and for industry.
The authors carry the progress forward into space, and include treatment of such varied subjects as unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, human factors and simulators. The breadth of the book is quite extraordinary, and would be intimidating were it not leavened with hundreds of photos, many never seen before, as well as many personal anecdotes. The names of the players are simply stunning, ranging from the Wright brothers themselves through Thurman Bane, Billy Mitchell, parachutist Colonel Edward L. Hoffman, engine man Opie Chenoweth, Jimmy Doolittle, Bernard Schriever and many hundreds more. Almost all of the personalities are pictured in the book as are hundreds of aircraft, items of equipment, and facilities. The photo reproduction is superb, and the book’s paper is of the highest quality.
Every library should have a copy of Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose, which is the first of a two volume set, and if you spend $69.00 to get one for your own library, you will feel rewarded. The second volume is promised for October, and if it is only fifty-percent as good as this one, it will be sensational. Diana G. Cornelisse, Chief of the ASC History Office, should be congratulated for her efforts and the efforts of the huge team she brought together for the project.