A new book in my library. (6 Viewers)

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I was going to say this is "Consolidated Mess" light, but that would not be giving it it's proper due I think. Definitely worth having, especially for the price.
 
I was going to say this is "Consolidated Mess" light, but that would not be giving it it's proper due I think. Definitely worth having, especially for the price.

I bought the volume on the TBD, if this book is similar it's fun for a modeler and not so much as a book meant for reading. I likened it to a hard cover effort by Steven Ginter.
 
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This is an excellent volume for readers interested in the "paper airplanes" aircraft of the cold war. From a historian's point of view, you get a brief description of the history of company model shops, promotional models, and how the models were used. The aircraft covered here are mostly in the gray area of having gone beyond the back of the napkin to becoming a proposal, but no metal has been cut. Aircraft are divided by class, bomber, fighter, VTOL, etc., except the Navy gets its own chapter as well.

There's a bit of coverage on civil airline projects and a couple of passing nods to Russian and WWII German models as well. Some plastic models are also included with old Hawk and Aurora models being illustrated, but they are really not germane to the subject.

As caveats, I would say if you have any of Jared Zichek's books on project aircraft, you have a significant portion of this book and I would recommend caution due to the rather ambitious pricing as this was written. The organization can sometimes get a bit interesting as well. Overall this book is well illustrated with quality photos and manufacturer's concepts.

This is a book with the central premise of covering the artifacts of each aircraft program and a bit of aircraft history as background for the model and not the aircraft themselves per se.

This is not a book for modelers. I have enjoyed this book but can only recommend it for the most die-hard of aviation fans.

(Add according to Library Thing, this must be the only book Capt. Vick doesn't own!)
 
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Correct, I don't own it. Does it have any mockup pictures? Or is it all paper planes?
All "paper airplanes" per se. No mock-ups. Just models of proposed aircraft and few of models of aircraft that did fly.
 
Haven't started the BSP Vol. 2 yet.
The CH-37 is a pretty standard layout for a NF series. The stand-out areas for this volume include civil operations, more color pictures than is the norm, profiles on the back cover, along with coverage of Army ops. The biggest difference on this volume is the operations, you still have the standard dry unit histories, however, the author has incorporated oral histories of both the maintenance personnel and aircrew.
Please note that even by NF standards the technical descriptions are excellent. Modelers should be careful as some of the instrument panel photos appear to be from later surplus civilian operators. There is also a chapter on the S-60 which will provide the reader with a evolutionary link to the CH-54, Erickson Skycrane, and future Airborne Mine Countermeasures (AMCM) with the RH-53D and MH-53E helicopters. Even the experimental ASUW version gets a bit of coverage as well as a British connection that will interest a few readers.

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Here is the review of BSP2 Bombers:
The new information in this revised edition has literally doubled the page count and consists mostly of high-quality archival material that was not available to the author when he wrote the original volume. This volume covers the gamut of British "bombers" to include aircraft not normally seen as "bomber" per se, such as VTOL, ASW and battlefield interdiction aircraft. Mr. Buttler has chosen to place emphasis on the research, design and development within each program and included illustrations of the competing airplanes that never flew in doing so he also briefly touches on the external politics and the conflicts within the Air Staff as well. Because of this approach some will find the stories of particular airframes truncated. For example, all three V-Bombers get a total of 70 pages devoted to them which doesn't seem like much but actually comprises 22% of the book.

In exchange for this brevity the reader gets an excellent overview of British aircraft development by type, and program, some excellent drawings and appendices that are a work unto themselves. This book will probably be of limited use to modelers but is strongly recommended without reservations for anyone with an interest in British aircraft or cold war aviation.
 
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