He has written articles for the high power rocketry hobby, but this is his fi rst book. The Next Shuttle is the fi rst totally electronic book that I have read, and what a book it is.

It encompasses thirteen chapters, with well over 400 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages packed with color graphs, diagrams, charts, scale drawings, and photographs. Dave has compiled a wealth of information regarding the detailed history of failure and advancement and the visible future of the space shuttle and other flying spacecraft.

The Next Shuttle provides a technical discussion of problems encountered during development of the flying spacecraft and the solutions that overcame them.

I really enjoyed reading about difficulties encountered during spacecraft development and the innovations that were used to rectify them. The Next Shuttle provides eyewitness, pilot and engineering stories about developmental and flight concerns of various flying spacecraft.

But he didn't stop there. Dave also provides data for the construction of flying models of the prototypes that led to the design of the Rockwell Space Shuttle. Scaled drawings are provided for several of the lifting bodies, the Bell X-1, X-20 DynaSoar, the X-15, the Rockwell Shuttle, and the Lockheed Venture Star.

When I read a book that I really enjoy and I learn new things about the space program and the machines, I like to look over the sources used by the author. Some books are very skimpy on their sources lists.

The Next Shuttle provides an entire chapter listing the sources of the information used in the book. Dave goes even further than just a listing in his sources chapter; he describes the content and use of each source, and provides a brief review. Although these source descriptions and review are very valuable, I have never seen this done before now. What a great concept.

Conclusion

If you are interested in building and fl ying models of the Shuttle prototypes and successors, this is a great place to begin. If you are interested in the technological history of the development of the Shuttle and other fl ying spacecraft, this is a great place to become informed. If you are looking for a good listing of rocketry related source books complete with a brief review of each, this is your book. Visit the publisher's web site for more details and a sample of the book.

Pros

This book provides a dense collection of great data compiled into a single book. The Next Shuttle provides developmental stories, model making data and a very detailed source listing. The price is just $25 since you order on CD or download it from Dave's website in pdf format. This also allows Dave to provide a lot of color. A book of this size and with this amount of color would be very expensive if published in the normal fashion.

Cons

Dave is an instrument engineer. You will have to get past the sometimes troublesome tense and sentence structure, which tends to make some parts of the book not as clear as they could be. Although this problem does detract from the text, it is infrequent enough for the book to remain easily understood. The book could use the talents of a good editor.

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