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Introduction to Airborne Radar
Available until April 10th!
Introduction to Airborne Radar is the revision of the classic book privately published by Hughes Aircraft Company in 1983. Lavishly produced in full color, the book was quite unlike any commercially published radar book produced by the major technical publishers. The combination of clear, understandable writing and the unparalleled illustrations established the text-reference as a 'must-have' for engineers, technicians, pilots, and even sales and marketing people within the radar and aerospace industry. The book was authored by veteran Hughes engineer and Technical Manager George W. Stimson, a publications specialist. Individual chapters were thoroughly reviewed by the appropriate experts within the Hughes Radar Systems Group. The book was initially available 1983-1987 only to those within the Hughes employees and customers, primarily the military. Restriction was lifted in 1987. Hughes went through three printings and 40,000 copies 1983-1993, mostly by word-of-mouth testimonials and demand. Upon retirement from Hughes, George Stimson successfully negotiated for the rights to the book and made an agreement with SciTech Publishing to do a major revision of the text to update it. The resulting Second Edition has been overwhelmingly positive and a best-seller. Second Edition The revision is thirteen entirely new chapters cover the technological advances over the fifteen years since publication, two chapters considered obsolete have been deleted entirely, three chapters are extensively rewritten and updated, two chapters have been given new sections, and fourteen chapters have been given minor tweaks, corrections, and polishing. The book has grown from 32 chapters to 44 chapters in 584 efficiently-designed pages. Efforts have been made to bring more even-handed coverage to radars developed outside of Hughes Aircraft, while older and less important Hughes radars have been deleted or abbreviated. Chapter 44 catalogs many of the cutting edge radars in functioning aircraft and near-service aircraft in early stages of production. The book's appeal is to a diverse from military pilots and radar officers eager to gain a sound technical understanding of the complex systems that their lives depend upon, on up through technicians, marketing, and sales people, to the radar system design specialists, who may 'know all that stuff' but who deeply admire the expression and thus use the book to teach others who have questions. The market encompasses companies directly involved in the radar business and those on the periphery, college professors of engineering and physics themselves, along with students in aviation, aeronautics, and electromagnetics and radar courses. The cross-disciplinary and multi-level demand for the book shows that the book should not be pigeon-holed as just a radar book for electrical engineers. Virtually anybody with a knowledge of high school algebra, trigonometry, and physics will be able to read and absorb most of the material.
Introduction to Airborne Radar is the revision of the classic book privately published by Hughes Aircraft Company in 1983. Lavishly produced in full color, the book was quite unlike any commercially published radar book produced by the major technical publishers. The combination of clear, understandable writing and the unparalleled illustrations established the text-reference as a 'must-have' for engineers, technicians, pilots, and even sales and marketing people within the radar and aerospace industry. The book was authored by veteran Hughes engineer and Technical Manager George W. Stimson, a publications specialist. Individual chapters were thoroughly reviewed by the appropriate experts within the Hughes Radar Systems Group. The book was initially available 1983-1987 only to those within the Hughes employees and customers, primarily the military. Restriction was lifted in 1987. Hughes went through three printings and 40,000 copies 1983-1993, mostly by word-of-mouth testimonials and demand. Upon retirement from Hughes, George Stimson successfully negotiated for the rights to the book and made an agreement with SciTech Publishing to do a major revision of the text to update it. The resulting Second Edition has been overwhelmingly positive and a best-seller. Second Edition The revision is thirteen entirely new chapters cover the technological advances over the fifteen years since publication, two chapters considered obsolete have been deleted entirely, three chapters are extensively rewritten and updated, two chapters have been given new sections, and fourteen chapters have been given minor tweaks, corrections, and polishing. The book has grown from 32 chapters to 44 chapters in 584 efficiently-designed pages. Efforts have been made to bring more even-handed coverage to radars developed outside of Hughes Aircraft, while older and less important Hughes radars have been deleted or abbreviated. Chapter 44 catalogs many of the cutting edge radars in functioning aircraft and near-service aircraft in early stages of production. The book's appeal is to a diverse from military pilots and radar officers eager to gain a sound technical understanding of the complex systems that their lives depend upon, on up through technicians, marketing, and sales people, to the radar system design specialists, who may 'know all that stuff' but who deeply admire the expression and thus use the book to teach others who have questions. The market encompasses companies directly involved in the radar business and those on the periphery, college professors of engineering and physics themselves, along with students in aviation, aeronautics, and electromagnetics and radar courses. The cross-disciplinary and multi-level demand for the book shows that the book should not be pigeon-holed as just a radar book for electrical engineers. Virtually anybody with a knowledge of high school algebra, trigonometry, and physics will be able to read and absorb most of the material.
576 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 2, 2008
It's hard to review something like this. It's not as though this is a pleasant book to read. That said, it could be worse. It's a basic treatment, which is good, because I'm an idiot. Plus I got it for free. Well, I guess I had to sell my soul, but otherwise it was free.
April 17, 2025
This book is a classic for very good reasons. It covers the concepts incredibly well, with good illustrations and very readable prose. However, it lacks a lot of the math that would help one actually implement the systems involved. The good news is that there are other radar textbooks that lean too heavily on the math and can be fairly difficult to follow. I recommend reading both, side by side, and when the math heavy one gets too difficult to understand, page over to this one, get the concept embedded in your brain, and then head back to the other and find that the math suddenly slots into place now that you understand what's going on. Two books, each 4 stars from a minor deficiency, combine into a 5 star educational masterpiece.
July 2, 2018
Described everythingabout radar, but in terms of old technology. It is an old book, but still has lots of details and illustrations that are useful. I didn't read the whole thing. I read the beginning and then started reading the chapter summaries. I know where to look if I want more detail.
January 29, 2021
Stimson provides a thorough treatment of the principles of airborne radar. The reader has the option to follow through all derivations or take a more pedestrian approach, focusing instead on the text and graphics of the book.
January 30, 2015
No other introduction needed
Stimson’s second edition is a slight improvement over his first. “Slight” because improving near perfection remains a difficult task. Nowhere else is such clarity apparent in the complex field of radars. Thanks to Stimson this subject could be understood by my grandmother. If only Stimson would carry edition three to the next echelon, extending depth and detail to levels required to actually build and make a working, modern radar. For example, applying his talent to the intricacies of adaptive processing; a completion of SAR computational demands and processes (vs. stopping at the digital filter FFT); nuances of ever more important phase noise, test, measurement and producibility of radar systems that shouldn’t cost a million dollars per copy (but a fraction of this with proper processes and synergistic integration vs. the “Mister Potato Head” approach of slapping together the latest-greatest-of-every-subsystem-technology still practiced by engineers in just about everything). Unfortunately this may be our last version from Stimson as he’s no longer a young man and such efforts are monumental. Even so, he’s made himself a national asset creating this magnificent edition, probably lasting longer than any of us in the field today.
Stimson’s second edition is a slight improvement over his first. “Slight” because improving near perfection remains a difficult task. Nowhere else is such clarity apparent in the complex field of radars. Thanks to Stimson this subject could be understood by my grandmother. If only Stimson would carry edition three to the next echelon, extending depth and detail to levels required to actually build and make a working, modern radar. For example, applying his talent to the intricacies of adaptive processing; a completion of SAR computational demands and processes (vs. stopping at the digital filter FFT); nuances of ever more important phase noise, test, measurement and producibility of radar systems that shouldn’t cost a million dollars per copy (but a fraction of this with proper processes and synergistic integration vs. the “Mister Potato Head” approach of slapping together the latest-greatest-of-every-subsystem-technology still practiced by engineers in just about everything). Unfortunately this may be our last version from Stimson as he’s no longer a young man and such efforts are monumental. Even so, he’s made himself a national asset creating this magnificent edition, probably lasting longer than any of us in the field today.
February 26, 2016
Still relevant today, this book provides the design considerations of all models of radar that help aircraft track targets. It is a useful reference for those providing maintenance or systems integration.
This book sits on every Hughes/Raytheon engineer's desk so we all equally understand and apply the theory and terminology of RAdio Detection and Ranging.
This book sits on every Hughes/Raytheon engineer's desk so we all equally understand and apply the theory and terminology of RAdio Detection and Ranging.
September 17, 2009
Contents are complex but not difficult to understand.
July 22, 2011
This is a great introductory radar book. It has color pictures and everything! ;)
April 20, 2016
This book is 5 stars for the pictures alone!! One of the seminal books although probably a bit basic for the true practitioner of radar systems.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews