Dark Sky--Black Sea--Aircraft Carrier Night and All-weather Operations

Wings of Gold, Summer 2000

Dark Sky - Black Sea - Aircraft Carrier Night and All-weather Operations by CAPT Charles H. Brown, USN (Ret.), Naval Institute Press, 2062 Generals Highway, Annapolis, MD 21401 6780, $34.95, 252 pages, some black and white photos. CAPT Brown's excellent account of how Naval Aviation adapted to night and all-weather operations traces the development of this capability from the 1920s to the present and readily describes how the modern axiom, "Naval Aviation Owns the Night;' came about.

ANA member Brown delineates the technical developments along the way that made this possible. RADM Robert C. Mandeville, USN (Ret.) noted, "CAPT Brown succeeds in telling a basically technical history by recounting over fifty year's worth of interesting and exciting vignettes of life in the real fast lane - naval aviation." There are enlightening anecdotes from those who paved the way to night operational success at sea and who experienced first-hand this challenging, if hazardous, aspect of Naval Aviation