Ken Neubeck

Ken Neubeck (b. 1952) was born in Port Jefferson, Long Island and lived in the Patchogue area of Long Island all of his life. After receiving degrees in Applied Math from Stony Brook University, Ken worked for several aerospace companies on Long Island as a reliability engineer, initially with the Fairchild Republic Company on the A-10 Warthog program. Through the experiences of writing many engineering reports, Ken developed some writing skills in the area of non-fiction which resulted in both books and articles in the field of amateur radio, reliability engineer and aircraft. He has written two key books in the field of amateur radio (he has callsign WB2AMU) - SIX METERS, A GUIDE TO THE MAGIC BAND (first edition in 1994, fourth edition in 2008) and cowrote with Gordon West, VHF PROPAGATION, A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR RADIO AMATEURS (2004). He has written a textbook, PRACTICAL RELIABILITY ANALYSIS (2004) which makes use of his work experiences. In the field of aircraft books, his first effort was the A-10 Warthog in action (1995) for Squadron/Signal Publications and has continued with several more books for Squadron/Signal that cover different military aircraft, typically walk-around style books. There is a small backlog of different aircraft books which should be coming out over the next few years. With regards to the aircraft books, Ken notes some of the comments by different reviewers and wants to make clear that books on older Cold War era aircraft require the use of several museum exhibits to come up with a composite story. Ken also tries to find as many historical photos of these aircraft for the walk around book series. Older aircraft may mean only black and white photos in some cases. Sometimes, there are limitations involved with available exhibits and these represent challenges for each book project. Digital photography is a major part of the walk-around style books that are in works. Please be aware that my first book, SIX METERS, A GUIDE TO THE MAGIC BAND, is not out of print. The fourth edition is still available - contact me at ken.neubeck@gmail.com if looking for this book. The latest book that Ken has written with co-author Leroy Douglas has been released March 2016 - Airplane Manufacturing in Farmingdale (Arcadia Books).