A good generalist book

Air Fan, February/March 2017 – reviewed by Sam Pretat

As featured in

Airfix Model World, December 2016

This book is a soft-cover work of the ‘Aviation Monograph’ genre, and is essentially a ‘picture book’ of photographs, accompanied by a small amount of text. It is both a written and visual history of the USAF. The photographs it contains are from the author’s collection, although the majority are originally sourced from USAF archives, a fact that the author acknowledges. The volume is divided into six separate chapters, with each of these covering a specific time period. A well-researched and well-written section appears at the beginning of each chapter. Within this section the relevant information is presented under appropriately-worded subheadings. The written section is in turn followed by a photographic section showing aircraft of the era, the majority of these images being in colour. The photographs are clear and crisp, the colour images especially-so. The photographs appear to have been professionally-taken, and provide a level of detail and quality that few amateurs can match. If photographs (especially colour photographs) of USAF aeroplanes are what the purchaser requires, then this book will have few equals. The volume contains a Contents section together with a Dedication, Foreword, Acknowledgments and Notes to the Reader. There is however no Index, nor or a list of the aircraft-types that appear within its covers. For those interested in a once-over-lightly review of the USAF and pictures of its aircraft, it is unlikely that the lack of the latter will be of any consequence.

In precis, this work is something of a mixed bag; it has beautiful photographs (especially colour ones) and a well-researched and well-written text. As such it would be useful as an introduction to its subject.

NZ Crown Mines - Keith Rimmer

Something just a little bit different from usual for this new addition to the Images of War series, for the bulk of the pictures in this one are in colour, though there are still some black and white archive pictures. As usual, this is a photo book, but with some informative and well balanced background text to introduce each chapter, along with helpful captions on all of the photos as well.

A good collection of photos which make a good job of illustrating the many combat aircraft used by the USA over 100 years plus of history, from those flimsy, early biplanes, through to the supersonic and stealth aircraft of the 21st Century.

Military Modelling, Robin Buckland