The Defence Experts’ ‘Bible’

Press, 10 March 1984, Page 16

The Defence Experts’ ‘Bible’

By

Ed Blanche

of the Associated Press, in London, through N.Z.P.A.

The latest “Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft” contains details on three new Soviet interceptors, a strategic bomber, and the world’s biggest transport plane, the Antonov 400 “Condor” — every one of them on the Kremlin’s secret list.

The publication was the latest in a long line of coups for John W. Taylor, veteran editor of the authoritative yearbook, and one of the world’s foremost aviation experts. He did not get the information through a network of agents inside the Soviet Union. He got it by reading everything available on Soviet aircraft, tapping old friends in key positions in Soviet aviation, and by adding two and two. “We don’t have any private spy system,” said Taylor who is aged 61.

“It’s all above board. Our biggest asset is the trust of aviation people, military and civilian, around the world.

“We don’t encourage espionage. For instance, a businessman I know told me he was going to East Germany and asked if we wanted him to get photographs of Soviet planes.

“I turned him down. We don’t want people getting chopped play-

ing spies. 1 don’t believe the odd scoop is worth risking the life of a friend, or anyone else.”

Playing it straight pays off. The Americans let him sit in the cockpit of the prototype Fl 6 Fighting Falcon when the fighter was still on the restricted list and asked his opinion.

The current yearbook includes two pages and plan drawings of China’s Qiang 5 “Fantan” fighter — courtesy of the People’s Republic.

“I know most of the Soviet designers personally. I know what they’re like, and how they think,” Taylor said. “Between that, and assessing what they need to produce, it’s not really hard to come up with the data that we do.”

“One plane leads to another,” he said. “Soviet aircraft design is based on what’s gone before. “A lot of what we do is simply projecting on known data. For instance, the next major Soviet development will likely be a helicopter designed to shoot down other helicopters. That’s where the gap is.” Taylor, the aircraft annual’s fourth editor, has been at the

controls for 25 years. His expertise, and that of the editors and researchers of 13 other Jane’s yearbooks, has made the weighty annuals the “bible” of defence experts all over the world. Taylor, who is an aviation engineer, works almost continuously for six months of the year collating the mountain of data for the yearbook, charting new entries and updating the 6000 aircraft listed. He has a staff of six, including his son Michael.

During World War 11, Taylor worked with the legendary British designer Sir Sidney Camm, who produced the Hawker Hurricane. He thinks his engineering background is invaluable. “An engineer can look at an item of equipment and generally know whether it works or not,” he said.

When the Soviets brought out their first supersonic bomber, the Tupolev 22 “Blinder,” a few years ago, they claimed that it had a top speed of mach 2.5 — around 3000 kmh.

Taylor estimated that its best speed was closer to mach 1.5, or around lOOOkmh, and was proved correct.

“It had very small air intakes, and any engineer could tell that the speed must be far lower than what was claimed,” he said. Jane’s publishing house was founded in 1890 by F. T. Jane, the inquisitive son of a Devonshire clergyman. He envisioned aircraft carriers, torpedoes, and other advances long before his contemporaries.

These days the Jane’s annuals are deemed authoritative sources from the Kremlin to the White House.

Every year, Soviet defence attaches and other experts troop around to Jane’s offices in unfashionable north London to pick up advance copies of the annuals.

Jane’s first book was “Fighting Ships,” published in 1897. It had 221 pages of pen-and-ink drawings, made by F. T. Jane himself, and an index of about 1000 warships, virtually every ironclad afloat at that time.

The latest edition has 800 pages, lists 15,000 naval vessels, and is required reading for officers of the world’s navies. When Prince Charles commanded the frigate H.M.S. Bronington in 1977, he said: “Jane’s Fighting Ships’ is a wardroom name to every naval officer.

Every good bridge should have one.”

Jane’s first yearbook was such a success that Grand Duke Alexander Mihilovitch, a Russian Navy captain, commissioned him in 1899 to write “a history of the Imperial Russian Navy.” Five years later, the Japanese, flexing their maritime muscles and eyeing Russia for conquest, asked him to do the same for the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1909, the year Louis Bleriot became the first man to fly across the English Channel, F. T. Jane launched “All the World’s Aircraft.”

These days, Jane’s — now owned by the Toronto-based Thomson Group — publishes annuals which cover infantry weapons, armoured vehicles, missiles, freight con-, tainers, railways, avionics, airport ‘ equipment, military equipment, communications, surface ■ skimmers and merchant ships. It publishes a quarterly defence review, and in January launched a - defence affairs weekly. Among the ; weekly’s scoops are details on the Soviets’ SA-13 missile, which is being deployed around Moscow; reports of N.A.T.O. admirals complaining about the lack of war- ,’ ships, and the likely new line-up in ; the Soviet navy leadership.