Bill Gunston

[Dr Jekyll]

Rumour on Aviation Forum that Bill Gunston died over the weekend.

[MartG]

Sad if it's true

[Yertis]

He was a great writer, presented quite complex technical matters in a very accessible way and his passion for his subject showed through. He was never afraid to be outspoken or describe things the way he saw them either.

[Eric Mc]

Sad loss to the aviation world. One of the best writers out there and unafraid to criticise when necessary.

[SlipStream77]

Sad news. He authored some great books.

He wrote 'The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the World's Modern Military Aircraft', one of my favourite books when I was a kid - pretty much responsible for my interest and knowledge in aircraft now.

[whiteonyx]

a wealth of knowledge sadly gone, respect from the aviation world

[hidetheelephants]

RIP. He was a good age so not that surprising; his books make up a large section of my reference library, he was an excellent technical author.

[Shar2]

RIP. I learnt an awful lot from reading his books in my formative years.

[anonymous-user]

SlipStream77 said:

Sad news. He authored some great books.

He wrote 'The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the World's Modern Military Aircraft', one of my favourite books when I was a kid - pretty much responsible for my interest and knowledge in aircraft now.

I had that book it was great. I also have this one with brilliant pictures of the aircraft and the range of weapons it carries.



He did many of the excellent 'An illustrated guide to' salamander series that had all the great profile drawings in.





I still have many of them.

His name on a book was stamp of quality.

[Eric Mc]

My favourite book of his is "Plane Speaking". Well worth a read as he had quite strong opinions on the true "quality" of some British aircraft.

[Dr Jekyll]

Did he have a rather far fetched theory about the B2 bomber or am I thinking of a different writer?

[Eric Mc]

Not heard of that. Of what "theory" do you speak?

[Dr Jekyll]

I think he estimated the power of the B2, and decided it didn't match the performance. He reckoned that this supported the notion that, either some exotic electrical anti radar system was consuming power, or there was some anti gravity device reducing the need for power. Both ideas were in vogue at one time, I can't remember which one Bill Gunston subscribed to but I suspect it was the first.

[Eric Mc]

I wouldn't think Mr Gunston would have any truck with anti-gravity nonsense.

[Shar2]

One of his illustrated books did have an artists impression of the new Advanced Tactical Bomber which looked partially stealthy but nothing like the B-2 when it was officially released. I don't think even Bill at the time could have thought Northrop were playing around with flying wings again.

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

My favourite book of his is "Plane Speaking". Well worth a read as he had quite strong opinions on the true "quality" of some British aircraft.

Equal favourit with this for me http://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Drawing-Board-Bill-Gu...

[Eric Mc]

That's a good one too.

[Ayahuasca]

I've still got this somewhere:

[hidetheelephants]

Ayahuasca said:

I've still got this somewhere:

I've got his F111 tome from the same series; a bloody good read.

[Wolseley]

My favourite Gunston books are the Development of Piston Aero Engines and the bio of Roy Fedden. Gunston had both the technical knowledge and that ability to put it into a readable form - like another of my favourites, Setright - we are the poorer at his passing.