Book Review: Manual of Avionics, 3rd Ed.:

Design Considerations, (3) Digital Technology, (4) Flight Decks and Cockpits, (5) Flight-Control Systems, (6) Aircraft Management Systems, (7) Navigation Systems, (8) Communications Systems, (9) Airborne Radar, (10) Electronic Warfare, and (11) Future Trends and Developments. There are also two rather useful glossaries; one for acronyms, and one for terms used in avionics. In contrast with the first book, there are many photographs of individual aircraft, rather than of aircraft equipment or avionics systems. Because it describes so many different aircraft. it contains two separate, dedicated indices for these aircraft, besides the main index. It also includes a touch of humour, as epitomised by the sketch of the electronic-warfare equipped, one-ton budgie! As a general rule, although Kendal's book appears to cover less material, it does tend to cover the material which is common to both in far greater depth and detail than Middleton's book. A few examples will serve to illustrate the comparative coverage and approach as follows: • Kendal devotes two sections of Chapter 3 and one section of Chapter 4 to direction finding and non-directional beacons (about IS pages). By contrast, it is somewhat difficult to find these topics dealt with in any really logical way in Middleton's book. • The well-established Decca, Loran, and Omega radio-navigation systems merit only a very small part of Chapter 7 in Middleton's book (about 2 pages), whereas Kendal devotes the whole of Chapter 6 (18 pages) to these particular systems. • The modem satellite-navigation system, the Global Positioning System (GPS), merits only about 1 page of Middleton (Chapter 7), but ranges across some 7 pages of Kendal (Chapter 8). • It is also interesting to compare whole chapters, such as those of Radar (Chapter 5, Kendal) with Airborne Radar (Chapter 9, Middleton). It is quite clear that Kendal deals with the topic in a more substantial fashion. This is apparent from his mathematical approach, where he derives the radar equation, includes radar-system block-diagrams, and devotes more than twice as many pages to the topic. Generally speaking, I found the Middleton book to be not very well organised, probably as a result of having been written by so many different authors. This observation is further borne out by the fact that there are, as with Kendal's book, numerous topics which are actually mentioned in the text, but which, unfortunately, are not listed in the main index. This is an irritating, common problem which I have frequently addressed in my many previous book reviews, so I shall thump the drum yet again ... 'An inadequate index will limit the usefulness of, spoil the effectiveness of and make it a struggle to read any textbook!' I am also bound to say that, although the Middleto~ book is produced in a hardback format at a similar price, my copy has already split along its spine, with use. In spite of these criticisms, however, the broader, but shallower, so-called 'systems' coverage of this book might make it appeal to a wider, or perhaps even different, readership. My own feeling is that it would tend to be more interesting and useful to those readers who already have some knowledge of avionic systems. It is not an ideal book for introductory or basic undergraduate courses. Having completed my parallel review, I am of the opinion that the two books are not as similar in their individual content and approach as their titles might initially suggest, and that they actually complement each other rather well. Furthermore, since there are so few books available from the major publishing houses in the field of avionics, I would say that avionics systems engineers, lecturers, and students alike, would find both books to be extremely useful in their work and studies. Personally, I have requested our university library to purchase several copies of each book to support the new course in Instrumentation and Avionics Systems, which I have been developing for the second year of our B.Eng. Aerospace Systems Engineering degree scheme. BRIAN M. SHAW, Division of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Hertfordshire