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Ultimately, this work is one of the best works of air power (and technology) history that this reviewer has read in quite some time, and will likely become a standard of the field. It certainly sets a very high bar for other historians. For those interested in pilot culture and/or aircraft technology, this is required reading, while still pointing towards directions for future scholarship.
Fino has truly written a very fine and well-researched academic book that will appeal across disciplines and military services. Tiger Check proves that aggressiveness and being a good stick, are still the hallmark of being of fighter pilot, but adds switchology and scientific skills needed to the traits necessary to operate a modern fighter aircraft. If the Sabre pilots were tigers, then today’s fighter pilots are tigers in lab coats. Fino should be mandatory reading for fighter pilots, especially those who are not familiar with the genesis of the tactics and tradecraft that they ply today. Though highly technical in some sections, it is an imminently readable tome that will also appeal to air power and technical aficionados, and those who seek to understand the origins and the changing nature of air-to-air combat.
This is a masterly analysis of fighter combat in the Korean and Vietnam wars and beyond...an outstanding book showing how pilots grappled with new technologies that promised to simplify their jobs while increasing their lethality in the air but, the author says, also threatened to rob them of the quintessential fighter pilot experience.
Thoroughly researched, well organized, and masterfully written, Tiger Check takes readers inside the cockpit to really get a feel for the complexities inherent in—and the technological and cultural evolution of—fighter aviation.
Until you read this book you will never fully understand how the marriage of fighter pilot culture and technology, often marked by deep disagreements, has nonetheless survived in the long term to produce the world’s greatest fighter aircraft and fighter pilots.
Taking his readers into the cockpits of Air Force fighter planes, Fino ably describes how the automation of flight controls and of the aircraft’s guns and missiles altered the experience, and even the meaning, of being a pilot. Tiger Check contributes not just to the history of aviation but also to the history of the computerization of human labor at large.
Tiger Check is a masterful account of how the advent of new technologies changed the face of air combat during the twentieth century. But it’s a good deal more than that. Author Steven Fino excels at identifying and explaining complex social tensions and relationships that existed within the US Air Force as the introduction of increasingly automated equipment challenged the reigning myth of the heroic fighter pilot and its implications for air-to-air combat. His findings are very compelling.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6.125
x 9.25
Pages
448
ISBN
9781421423272
Illustration Description
45 b&w photos, 30 line drawings
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. The Myth of the Fighter Pilot
Crafting the Mythical Ace
Revisiting the History
Ritualizing the Myth
War's Next Test
Conclusion
3. Sabres
Acknowledgments
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. The Myth of the Fighter Pilot
Crafting the Mythical Ace
Revisiting the History
Ritualizing the Myth
War's Next Test
Conclusion
3. Sabres over Korea
A New Solution to an Old Gunnery Problem
Thrust into War
Capturing Glory
Using the New Gunsights
Conclusion
4. Phantoms over Vietnam
A New Approach to the Gunnery Problem
Thrust into War, Again
Tension in the Air
Who Gets the Credit?
Conclusion
5. Eagles over Nellis
A Pure Air-to-Air Fighter
Trial by Test
"Sorting" Things Out
Conclusion
6. Conclusion
The Irony of the Fighter Pilot
A Lesson for Future Automation
Knights or Scientists?
Notes
Works Cited
Index
