Book Reviews

INTRODUCTION TO RADAR USING PYTHON AND MATLAB

By Andy Harrison

Artech House, 2019, 470pp.

The subject of an introduction to radar is far from a novel topic and, indeed, there already exists a plethora of such publications. Therefore, any new publication on this subject requires either to be a significant updating of earlier work or one which takes a different/novel and relevant approach. Additionally, the question needs to be asked: towards what readership is such a book targeted?

Bell Aerosystems Jet Belt. Williams International

In reading and considering Harrison’s book, one should bear in mind earlier well-respected and extensively used reference text books, such as Merrill Skolnik’s Radar Handbook and David Barton’s Modern Radar System Analysis. Either of these classic texts, and indeed many others, can effectively be employed in achieving a good overall introduction to radar.

Harrison’s recently published book does not equate directly to either Barton’s or Skolnik’s books but does introduce and include, as a fundamental component, a mechanism to analyse, model and predict radar performance through the specific and applied use of Python and MATLAB software programs.

Since each chapter of the book, for example the Radar Range Equation chapter, concludes with worked examples (set problems and solutions) employing Python and/or MATLAB, it is perhaps relevant briefly to summarise these two programming languages:

MATLAB or ‘matrix laboratory’ is a programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks particularly for engineering, science and economics users. It allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces etc.

Python is an interpreted, high-level and general-purpose programming language created around 1990, since when it has been extensively revised. It is designed to assist programmers in writing clear, logical code for small and large-scale projects and object-oriented and functional programming. Python interpreters exist for many operating systems and a global community of programmers develops and maintains CPython, a free and open-source reference implementation. Python apparently ranks third in the most popular programming languages, behind C and Java.

The structure and organisation of the book is largely as one might anticipate for an introduction to radar – a very broad subject – and inevitably the field is far from completely and in all cases comprehensively covered by Harrison. The fundamental basis of and for radar is usefully treated with a chapter on electromagnetic fields and waves, including real-world factors, such as tropospheric refraction, wave theory, diffraction and attenuation.

In summary, it is a well-constructed and concisely written book, incorporating a balanced combination of textual explanations and well-presented mathematical descriptions

In addition, chapters summarising the radar equation itself (fairly briefly), antenna fundamentals and types, and receivers are included, but transmitters are not covered. The author continues by considering target detection theory, including CFAR (constant false alarm processing), target fluctuations and integration in reasonable detail. Radar cross-section benefits from a reasonably thorough treatment and I would rate this as one of the strengths of the book. Perhaps curiously, a complete chapter is devoted to pulse compression and this has a particularly extensive and interesting set of Python/MATLAB worked examples.

Target tracking is covered quite fully and reasonably for a radar introduction text and, again, presents an extensive series of filter-based Python/MATLAB examples with solutions. As with the other chapters, it is concluded with a number of problems for the student to solve. However, the book makes only an extremely brief mention of target/clutter discrimination processing, eg MTI (moving target indication/Doppler processing) and this is included in the final chapter on countermeasures. The penultimate chapter covers aspects of tomographic synthetic aperture radar.

However, there is no coverage of radar aspects and issues relating to application in a moving platform, such as airborne surveillance or space-based radar. For the reader seeking to achieve a more comprehensive coverage of radar, Doppler processing, target recognition etc, it would be necessary to complement Harrison’s book with other available works.

If I have one significant criticism it is that the book contains not even the briefest treatment of radar clutter which, even in a text for an introduction to the subject, is a major and fundamental omission. It would possibly have been justifiable to omit the chapter on countermeasures and devote the treatment to clutter.

Harrison does make mention of the important and fundamental early work of Woodward in probability and information theory in radar and also Swerling’s work on fluctuating target detection, both of which I suggest have strong theoretical science foundations, in addition to the scientific and mathematical approaches employed in radar clutter analysis and modelling.

In summary, it is a well-constructed and concisely written book, incorporating a balanced combination of textual explanations and well-presented mathematical descriptions, which serves both as an introduction to many important aspects of radar but also as an extensive exercise in the usage and application of both the MATLAB and Python programming applications. It is eminently readable and understandable. I assess that it is probably most relevant to post graduate student scientists and engineers requiring a moderately detailed understanding of aspects of radar with a view to practical applications.

Dr Chris Pell
CEng FRAeS

FLYING BLIND

The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing

By Peter Robison

Penguin Business, 2021, 327pp. £20 hardback, £9.99 Kindle.

Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8, ET-AVJ, the aircraft involved in the ET302 crash. LLBG Spotter.

This is a shameful book. It should never have been written. Correction: it should never have had to have been written. Robison has produced a very fine and illuminating book. It has the momentum and page-turning grip of Michael Crichton’s Airframe or Neville Shute’s No Highway. The brutal difference is that Crichton and Shute wrote fiction, while 346 people died as a result of the corporate negligence and regulatory failure underpinning the two Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes.

Undelivered Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that were grounded by aviation agencies, seen in the parking lot at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. SounderBruce.

The crux of this appalling story is summed up towards the end of Flying Blind: “Conceived in haste to avoid losing market share, the MAX 8 ended up putting Boeing into the deepest hole in its history.” If Robison’s worst-case scenario pans out, the final accumulated cost of the disaster could be as high as $65bn – all to save on meeting the challenge of the Airbus A320neo with another fix of a 30-year old design.

The author describes how the venerable 737 design was already at its limits, and the MAX 8 needed a radical software-driven solution to stay safely in the air. The MCAS system depended, as it turned out, on a single point failure sensor and a complicated piloting response in the event of failure. All very well, if Boeing had stipulated simulator training for crews converting to the MAX 8 but in order to shave off dollars from the list price, it advertised the MAX 8 as needing only an iPad based summary. Other safety features were payable ‘add-ons’, which might have helped avoid the crashes of the Lion and Ethiopian aircraft.

However, Robison rightly goes deeper. This failure was decades in the making as the Boeing culture shifted from engineering and safety first values to shareholder value maximisation. The change was part of a wider current in US corporate culture and politically motivated deregulation that cut funds and staff from the FAA and allowed Boeing to mark its own certification homework. The rot really set in with the merger with McDonnell Douglas and the arrival of a more ruthless management style from the latter, with a succession of CEOs looking to cut corners to improve share value and, in passing, management bonuses. One of these was to outsource airline customer training, turning the operation into a profit centre.

There is no attempt here to eulogise the competition as a better model, but there are some timely references to how Airbus was not cutting the same corners. Perhaps a ‘compare and contrast’ analysis of the US and European approaches to civil aerospace would have been informative but, in this context, a minor caveat and no one with an interest in this industry can be complacent about commercial pressures compromising safety.

This is a shameful book. It should never have been written. Correction: it should never have had to have been written

The MAX 8 is back in service, pilots now have to undergo simulator training to operate the aircraft, but it is still the only large commercial aircraft flying without an electronic cockpit checklist that would greatly aid a crew in an emergency.

Flying Blind tells a story that chills the bones of any airliner passenger. The two crashes were the result of corporate neglect, if not worse. More telling, the dead were let down by the regulators who should be the first and last line of defence against this level of negligence.

Prof Keith Hayward
FRAeS 

WHEN GIANTS RULED THE SKY

By John J Geoghegan

The History Press, 2021, 464pp, £25 paperback, £9.49 e-book.

The introductory chapter sums this book up well – it describes the prospects for long-haul commercial operations by airship and, like the UK, American envy of the German successes. It also dispels many of the published opinions that wonder why airships were ever considered as the solution to long haul. There follows a detailed description of the USS Akron disaster in 1933 which occurred as Admiral Moffett pioneered large airships for coastal patrol undeterred by the British Imperial Airship Scheme and, like Moffett, this book ignores the British scheme. The few survivors, particularly Officer Wiley, became highly significant in the post-accident reviews and plans for the future, particularly with the USS Macon, still under construction.

USS Macon (ZRS-5) Flying over New York Harbor, circa Summer 1933. US Naval Historical Center.

Moffett, who perished in the Akron, is discussed in detail as well as the Goodyear Rubber Company management who, in partnership with the Zeppelin Company, were THE significant American company in airship development at this time. Goodyear brought their business reputation, political influence and cash reserves to the project but also put all that at risk should the airship plans falter. Paul Litchfield, who served with Goodyear from 1900-1958, is covered in detail: this book is something of a biography of his business activities. Even though Admiral Moffett died in the Akron his ongoing influence explains why Moffett Field became the ‘Lakehurst of the west’ in later years.

Divided into short manageable chapters, it is highly readable, thoroughly researched and referenced, and a great, and potentially unique, addition to the numerous other Europeanfocused books

The book looks in detail at the major players across the nation with interesting insights into their personal and business interests. Many of these individuals have rarely featured in European airship histories.

This work fills in a lot of gaps and helps explain the real dream felt at that time, pre-Second World War and runway availability, that airships were the ‘state of the art’ for long-haul travel, competing with oceanic liners and promising the long-distance, long-endurance, reconnaissance capability lacking at this time. Seemingly it was thought that, with airships, like Akron or Macon, cruising over the Pacific, they would have countered the Japanese threat that later materialised over Pearl Harbor.

The final chapters cover the demise of the Macon off the Pacific coast which sealed the fate of this military initiative, and terminated any thoughts of future commercial passenger use.

Divided into short manageable chapters, it is highly readable, thoroughly researched and referenced, and a great, and potentially unique, addition to the numerous other European-focused books covering this changing era for long-haul aviation.

Peter Davison
AMRAeS Curatorial Advisor to the Airship Heritage Trust and Vice Chair, RAeS Aeronautical Heritage Special Group 

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