Aircraft of World War II: Development, Weaponry, Specifications (Mini Landscape, 3)

I love this book! Tiny yet terrific packed with facts that some of which in all my aircraft and world war 2 studies,I didn't know before. It took awhile to get here from the seller but it was worth the wait!

Nice

Purchased this used for my husband's birthday. He absolutely loves the book. The pictures and details are wonderful. Great book to add to our library!

Lots of full color wartime action pics and diagrams -good refrence.

great book and came just perfect

Wonderful reference manual.

It covers almost every major aircraft type used in the Second world war but it's not free from its share of issues... Some of them being: 1) Some of the aircraft featured have explicit nose art (nude/ semi-nude female figures)... While this is a historical fact that such images were painted on many WWII aircraft (esp. those in US service), this makes the book unsuitable for younger readers.... As a result I can't share this book with many of my friends.... Especially children and teenagers.. 2) Although the B-24 bomber featured is listed as a 'J' model.. It looks more like an earlier 'D' model as the 'J' model had a mechanized nose turret with two .50 caliber machine guns.. The B-24 variant illustrated seem to have 3 manually operated nose guns which is characteristic of a D model 3) In the Entry for the B-24, There is an incident mentioned about a B-24 piloted by Capt. Jay Zeamer with 2nd Lt. Joseph Sarnosky as the nose gunner attacked by a swarm of Japanese fighters during a Recon mission over the pacific.. while the event is true The aircraft piloted by Capt. Jay Zeamer with 2nd Lt. Joseph Sarnosky as the nose gunner was a heavily modified B-17E Flying Fortress with serial no. 41-2666.... NOT a B-24... I really wish that authors would verify facts and review their books before publishing/marketing them... 4) the lighting effect of some of the aircraft seriously should have been better especially the Bristol Beaufighter & Westland Lysander to name a few.. As the aircraft illustrated are dark coloured and the panel lines and some of the engine components within the engine cowling are not visible 5) The F6F Hellcat illustrated is in Royal Navy Markings rather than U.S. Navy Markings. The Hellcat made its debut in the US Navy service during the Pacific battles of WWII 6) A later variant of the Spitfire should have been illustrated such as a Mk.VIII or a Mk.IX. 7) The Decisive model of the Messerschmitt Bf109 was the F/G models.. which were the main production variant.. but an earlier 'E' model is illustrated.. 8) The glass canopy enclosing the cockpit on the illustrations of the Ki-84 Hayate is not visible.. just the frame alone is visible 9) If the above issues didn't exist this book would definitely deserve 5 stars....

Robert Jackson's AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR II is a companion piece to his MILITARY JETS, 1945 TO THE PRESENT, which I reviewed on 14 November 2009. Both books 'boast' 3D artwork created by a computer promising spectacularly accurate views of various WW II Allied and Axis warbirds. Both have the same binding, format and combination of minimal text and seven-views. So, I guess it's only fair for me to give AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR II the same rating I gave MILITARY JETS. It's AWFUL! It's just as bad if not worse than the companion volume. AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR II describes/illustrates 35 aircraft: the He 111, IL-2, B-17/29, Mossie, A-20, Ki-84, Bf 109/110/162, B-24, P-40, Hurricane, FW 190, TBM, Lysander, Zero, Beaufighter and so on. The aircraft are arranged by manufacturer. Each aircraft gets one photograph, seven views (general arrangement, left/right, top/bottom, etc.) and brief specs and aircraft history. The problem is that the touted 3D program didn't work. The shapes of the aircraft are wrong! Look at the B-24 artwork. What Liberator ever resembled the bloated sausage featured in the book? Or, check out the P-51 artwork or the Kate or the P-47...they just aren't accurate. Then too, the artwork was reproduced way too dark. Why go to the bother of creating all those illustrations and then reproduce them in such a darkened-down presentation? The worst offender is probably the P-61 artwork. It's so dark the aircraft looks like one big, black blob! You can't tell where the wing ends and the fuselage begins. Obviously no one at Amber Books or the Chinese printer bothered to double-check the artwork for accuracy or presentation before printing up this paper Edsel. My summary for MILITARY JETS bears repeating here: "While I've seen fairly good computer artwork of airplanes, it ain't in this book! The artwork is inaccurate and reproduced very poorly. Someone was asleep at the wheel when this dud was ok'ed for printing. For $14.98, forgetaboutit! Not recommended."

Great little book with all the world war 2 planes from all the sides and a few odd ones too ,nice bit of states as well

It covers almost every major aircraft type used in the Second world war but it's not free from its share of issues... Some of them being 1) The book cover features a B-17G in USAAF markings but inside the book the B-17 illustrated is in RAF markings... The B-17 made its debut in USAAF service as a daylight bomber 2) The P-51 mustang illustrated inside the book is a 'C' model.. the decisive model of the P-51 was the 'D' model which saw considerable service in WWII even though it appeared only in 1944 3) One of the illustrated aircraft is the Avro manchester.. I really don't know why the author included this aircraft.. as it was only a prototype of the Avro Lancaster bomber... 4) The Decisive model of the Messerschmitt Bf109 was the F/G models.. which were the main production variant.. but an earlier 'E' model is illustrated.. 5) Some of the illustrations are compromised..such a I say this based on the fact that older aviation books like like "Flying Colors"by William Green & Gordon Swanborough (1997) and "Military Aircraft Markings and Profiles" by Barry C. Wheeler (1990) have much finer quality illustrations. 6) If the above issues didn't exist this book would definitely deserve 5 stars....

Dieses kleine und kompakte Buch gibt einen guten und informativen Überblick zu den bekanntesten Flugzeugen des 2ten Weltkrieges

Book is small and compact. It is only 6.5 by 5 inches (167mm by 126mm). it is full of quite a few aircraft, but not near enough. I guess in all things you can not have everything. It has most of the main contenders and a few that are not. As you can see from the photos each aircraft comes with a three view colour drawing then on the next pages it has the details and a short story about them. This is typical of most books of this kind. This is in no way an encyclopedia about World War II aircraft, but more an introductory glimpse. It was a good purchase at the price I payed. Happy with it.

A very handy little book. We used it to look up planes Great Grandpa flew in during the war as part of a school project. Not masses of information but perfect for what we wanted.