Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Like many of my fellow aviation writers, this B-29 book and my seven other books (amateurs write one book for a vanity press) were done as a labor of love and the many years of research and writing certainly are not equally remunerated monetarily. So when reading a review such as that by BillH that does not comment on the quality and quantity of the text but focuses on the quality of hundreds of B&W and original color photos and on the rare original B-29 drawings and charts; it is much like saying that someone's baby is ugly.
The B&W photos originally showed their 60 years as did the drawings and charts from yellowed manuals. Many of the photos and drawings were actually enhanced from the originals. One manual had a bullet hole through it! As for using a professional photographer, this was not allowed by Pima and would be exceeding expensive (as I found when engaging a professional photographer for my daughter's wedding!). Access to the aircraft was only allowed for a very short period of time during closing hours. With the bomber's limited interior space, lighting considerations, framing, and focusing were very difficult. The quality of the drawings and photos in this book certainly equals or exceeds that of the only other available B-29 books (e.g. Crowood (200 pages), Warbird Tech (96 pages), and B-29 Combat Photo Diary (160 pages, paperback).
Portions of the text, are paraphrased from original B-29 manuals and official publications and documents, and put into layman's terms as that method best explains the various too technical aspects and components of the bomber. From what other sources besides these rare materials could an "ultimate look" be written? There is some repetition only to clarify and maintain continuity of the overlapping components being discussed in different sections of the book. As the bibliography shows, the book used literally 100's of sources from my collection of 16,000 WW-2 books and magazines and 15,000 feet of official WW-2 aviation microfilm.
Since the book was so detailed it was difficult to write captions that would add any new information. Many readers do not read a book of this size from cover to cover but use it as a reference. They thumb though it, looking at photos and reading captions first to find subjects of interest in the text.
The book is meticulously organized and contains an extensive index. At 360 pages and 500+ drawings and photos from many rare sources; this book is by far the most comprehensive, detailed "Ultimate Look" on the B-29 to date.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Boeing B-29 Superfortress: The Ultimate Look: From Drawing Board to VJ-Day (Schiffer Military History)
Although many books have been published about the B-29, none has been an in-depth look, with most being either superficial pictorials or focusing on the bombing campaigns, particularly the incendiary attacks and atomic bombings. This book, using rare, pre
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