Review by Andrew Kitney. When my review copy of Britain's Glorious Aircraft Industry arrived, it immediately struck me just what a thorough and comprehensive product it appeared to be, with nearly 500 pages and a weight and presence to match. UK-born and having spent upwards of 36 years working in the airline industry as a... Continue Reading →
75 Years of the Israeli Air Force Vol. 2 – Bill Norton
Review by Takis Diakoumis. Helion’s @War series has quickly established itself as the go-to reference on global conflict over the past century with the people and machines directly involved providing a focal point for study. Conflict in the Middle East has dominated geopolitics since the end of the Second World War and at the critical... Continue Reading →
Flight Line – Thomas R. Combs
Review by Nicholas A. Veronico The bond between aircraft and crew chief, maintainers and aircrew, and airmen in general, is dramatically illustrated in Flight Line: The Adventures of a Vietnam-Era AC-130 Crew Chief. From Air Force induction and basic training, to military occupational specialty schooling, the author takes the reader on a personal journey through... Continue Reading →
TOPGUN: The Legacy – Brad Elward
Review by Takis Diakoumis. When this latest epic volume from Schiffer and Brad Elward arrived, I was absolutely stunned. Weighing in at almost 700 pages, this massive book is without doubt the most comprehensive publicly available study of the US Navy’s TOPGUN program I have ever had the pleasure to read. Schiffer Military books have... Continue Reading →
20th Century Passenger Flying Boats – Leslie Dawson
Review by Andrew Kitney. Working in the airlines for more years than I’m prepared to admit, I’ve always been interested in the history of the airline world from its start, growth and development into what we see today. Of course, prior to the widespread development of airfields and airports with their hard runways, the only... Continue Reading →
Modern Taiwanese Air Power – Roy Choo and Peter Ho
Review by Simon Jakubowski. It’s an established fact now that Harpia Publishing are world leaders in what they produce: detailed, well written, in-depth analyses of air power from around the world, offering readers trusted and factual material. I may be wrong, of course, and you’re free to argue that statement but, from what I’ve experienced... Continue Reading →
The Men who flew the English Electric Lightning – Martin W. Bowman
Review by Stuart Forth. The Spitfire, Lancaster and Vulcan are all legendary British aircraft and, as such, have copious amounts of books written about them. The same is true for that icon of Cold War aviation, the English Electric Lightning. Quite rightly, the people who flew, serviced or just witnessed this fire-breathing thoroughbred firsthand wax... Continue Reading →
Call-Sign Kluso – Rick Tollini
Review by Takis Diakoumis. It's sometimes hard to imagine the making of a fighter pilot, at least for someone like myself who has been in quiet awe of anyone who’s had the tenacity and aptitude to have those precious wings pinned to their chest. I would spy them at airshows as a child and into... Continue Reading →
No Way Out – Steven R. Whitby
Review by Nicholas A. Veronico. For more than sixty years, the human drama of a B-24 bomber and its crew that played out in the Libyan desert in 1943 has captivated people the world over. The 1958 discovery of an abandoned World War II B-24 Liberator, sitting on a desert plain more than 400 miles... Continue Reading →
The Zeppelin Offensive – David Marks
Review by Brett Holman. Even though the age of airships has long passed, they still exert an unparalleled grip on the popular imagination, appearing in science fiction as an easily-understood signifier of history taking a wrong turn somewhere, or in tech media as a temptingly slow-but-luxurious form of air travel that always seems just out... Continue Reading →