Boeing 707 and AWACS in detail and scale - D&S Vol. 23 Review

Boeing 707 and AWACS in detail and scale - DandS Vol. 23

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Although this book is over 15 years old, it still presents a great deal of interesting information on the Boeing 707, 720, and KC-135 (717) variants. It gives no feeling of being dated.
This book presents detailed photos of the undercarriage, wheel wells, engines (both turbojet and turbofan), and flight decks you are unlikely to encounter in most aviation books. My only quibble is page 46, which discusses the 707-200, a "hot ship" delivered exclusively to Braniff, in which the short fuselage and wings of the 707-120 was mated to the Pratt & Whittney JT-4A turbojets of the -320 Intercontinental. Two pictures do indeed depict a 707-227, but the caption mentions that the aircraft pictured, N7071, was delivered to Braniff in July 1959. In fact, this aircraft crashed prior to delivery, making N7072 Braniff's first 707. The bottom photo shows a Braniff 720-027, not a 707-227; that aircraft was equipped with the same Pratt & Whittney JT-3C turbojets of the 707-120 series.
The color and black-and-white photos and illustrations are crisp and of good quality. The author does a good job showing the differences among the various types and subtypes, both civil and military. Several nice photos of aircraft under construction are presented, but for a detailed look at early proposed designs, you will need to consult Rene Francillon's 707: Pioneer Jetliner. Diagrams outlining the interior of the AWACS versions are included, but as the book was published during the Cold War, these may not be complets. At the end of the book, Mr. Lloyd presents kit reviews. Some of these kits are still available, for others you will need to find one on eBay (the rare Airfix 707 "Air Force One" is not mentioned); the newer kits by AMT and Minicraft, of course, are not included. Though this section is somewhat out of date, I still found it to be helpful in my selection of the Entex 1/100 scale kit over the Heller 1/72 model to represent the 707 in my collection. The bibliography lists books on the Boeing 707 published prior to 1985; it is fairly comprehensive but omits Martin Caidin's classic mass-market paperback when American Airlines took delivery of its first 707s.
Anyway, if you like the 707, you would do well to puprchase this book.

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