Page 42 - Summer 2008

Books and Publications
Dick Stern
Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University PO Box 30, State College, Pennsylvania 16804
Acoustics Today welcomes contributions for “Books and Publications.” There is no charge for this service. Submissions of about 250 words that may be edited in MSWord or plain text files should be e-mailed to <acousticstoday@aip.org>. Cover graphics should accompany the text and must be at least 300 dpi. Please send the text and graphics in separate files.
Book Title: The Ears of Air ASW –
A History of U.S. Navy Sonobuoys
Authors: Roger A. Holler, Arthur W. Horbach and James F. McEachern
Publisher: Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation ISBN: 978-0-615-20113-9
Pages: 350
Illustrations: 177
Binding: Hardcover
Funded by the Office of Naval Research, this book documents the historical development of air- deployed underwater listening equipment for the Navy from World War II until the present day. It is not a textbook, but a reference for those desiring a working knowledge of the spectrum of U.S. Navy sonobuoys that were developed during the last 65 years. It documents the motivation, research, and engineering behind those developments, including
some ideas that did not progress beyond the research stage.
The book presents and discusses various sonobuoy design issues involved in air
descent, in-water deployment, suspension mechanisms, and sonobuoy hydrodynam- ics. Sections are included highlighting the characteristics of special purpose sonobuoys. Examples include the so-called “reliable acoustic path” sonobuoy, arctic sensors and geobuoys, an acoustic measurement device known as Autobuoy, a mag- netic anomaly detector sonobuoy, a pressure acoustic monitor system, an adaptation to a land-based sensor, and the tactical acoustic measurement and decision aid sonobuoy. A discussion of the Navy’s sonobuoy contracting philosophy is included along with an article discussing the evolution of the specification of noise tolerance requirements.
Appendices include a table depicting the evolution of submarines in parallel with the developments in the counter-effort of submarine detection. Another table lists the nomenclature of all sonobuoys that were introduced into the U.S. Navy Fleet and sum- marizes their more significant characteristics.
Editor’s Note—The items printed in “Books and Publications” are reported for informational purposes only and are not nec- essarily endorsements by the Editor, Acoustics Today, or the Acoustical Society of America.
Books and Publications 41