Good ww2 aircraft books

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Zeiss,

I would avoid that book, I have it and if I remember correctly (all my books are packed away) most if not all the "pictures" are illustrations, not photos.

What I would recommend is go to your nearest Borders Books or Barnes Nobles (my 1st choice) and head for the Bargin Section (in the front by the cash registers at B N and tucked in the back at Borders) and you are bound to find what you are looking for...and cheap! I still pick one up from time to time to remind myself why I love WW2 aircraft so much. Get going!

Regards
 
Wings of Gold, by Gerald Astor is an excellent book about the U.S. naval air campaign in the Pacific. It talks much about not only the combat but the evolution of the Navies aviation.
 
Zeiss I do have that book.. Its a pretty good one but its "completeness" is debatable. All though it advertises having all the World War II aircraft it only really focuses on the famous ones and doesn't have any of the unique projects and is also completely missing any flying boats. The 3-view drawings are good though and the writting isn't bad. Its a good one, but not "complete" at all.
 
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The best book for performance and specifications on WW2 US fighters, IMO, is "America's Hundred Thousand," by Dean, a Schiffer book. There are two books by Lundstrom on USN fighters in the early going in the Pacific, the first is "The First Team," and, I think, the next is "The First Team and Guadalcanal". They are the most exhaustively researched books on WW2 I have ever seen.
 
I know some people on this forum aren't a fan of his, but for a wide ranging series of WW2 aircraft reference books - you can't far wrong with the William green series Vol 1 to 4 Fighters by country, Vol 5 Flying Boats, Vol 6 Float planes, Vol 7 to 10 Bombers by country (which unfortunately is incomplete).
They sometimes, come up on ebay.

Others to look out for:
Flying Buccaners, by Steve Birdsall,
Strike from the Sky, by Richard P Hallion,
Ground Attack Aircraft, by Christopher Shores,
The Soviet air Force, by Alexander Boyd
 
Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft: Enzo Angelucci, Paolo Matricardi, Peirluigi Pinto: Books
Click to expand...
Yes I have that one. It is worth about $20. Some of the info is off and they are missing many some planes, but technical specs are OK.

One time at Boarders I got 1000 pages of WW2 aircraft for $10. And sometimes Boarders has the same book for $10 and for $50, so, like Capt. Vik said go straight to the bargain section.
 
I seconded Renrich's opinion, and Wagner's US Combat Planes or a title like that had specs for all US combat planes up to 1968, and that means for all versions.

Juha
 
Thanks for the info guys, I went to my nearest B&N and found some things but nothing really good, the bargain section was rather picked over.
 
Does anybody know if "To Win The Winter Sky" by Danny S. Parker is any good? Just caught a bit of it on the net and it looks good but never heard of it before.
 
Crunch said:
It's not just planes, but weapons in general, and it's very good.

there's no cover picture, but I'll scan mine and post it if anyone wants it.

Amazon.com: Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II: Chris Bishpo: Books
Click to expand...

I have that one and it's balls. It's okay for starters or if you just want to get a general picture of the technology of World War 2. It also has some nice pictures here and there. But you really can't trust the book on any details, specs or anything. It's full of errors.
 
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I think it is a good idea to share books. I will start a section tomorrow where members can post books that they have read and can recommend with ISBN numbers and everything so that it is easier for other members to find and order them.
 
merlin said:
I know some people on this forum aren't a fan of his, but for a wide ranging series of WW2 aircraft reference books - you can't far wrong with the William green series Vol 1 to 4 Fighters by country, Vol 5 Flying Boats, Vol 6 Float planes, Vol 7 to 10 Bombers by country (which unfortunately is incomplete).
Click to expand...
I also concur the info is fairly good and it covers the majority of aircraft
 
Hmmm... I would like to recommend Bill Gunston's The Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of World War II. I think its good enough for starters. And its cheaper.
 
My bride just bought me a copy of "Aircraft of World War II", by Chris Chant.
Over 300 pictures of everything from [A] Aeronca L-3 to [Y] Yak 9. All
good quality pic's.

Charles
 
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