Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The retirement of the F-14 Tomcat prompted me to buy this book. At one time, aviation fascinated me but I've been away for a while. Things have changed a little. The Tomcat retired?? A "Boeing" F-15. (Boeing?! It's McDonnell-Douglas you young upstarts!) Anyway... The book was published this year so it holds the promise of being reasonably up to date. Having had the opportunity to browse through it a few times this is what I see. No coverage of helicopters or other rotary wings. The V-22 Osprey is not here. No civilian light aircraft. No Pipers, Cessnas or Beeches (some of the military versions are, however). The SR-71 Blackbird and the Concorde are notable absentees. Some former Soviet airliners aren't here.
The book is organized mostly by function and, then, by time frame subsections. Therefore you'll find different versions of the same aircraft in different places. I'd have to recheck but I think I counted five different articles for the C-130 Hercules (for example) each regarding a different function; i.e. older variants, newer variants, gunships, "trash-haulers" and naval versions. It can get a little annoying to have to flip back and forth from one article to the other looking for a sense of time line continuity.
Still, I give it four stars despite my carping. There's about 450 pages to go through and it's a big, heavy book. There's still alot of stuff in this book. There isn't alot of open, white space here. Now, the intense enthusiast might find the book too simple or too idiosyncratic in layout. I'm just not the "train spotter" kind anymore so the book seems to work for me. Hey, it's only $30. Were you expecting a "Janes All the World..."?
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Encyclopedia of Modern Aircraft: From Civilian Airliners to Military Superfighters
Man's fascination with flight took off in 1903 when the Wright Flyer flew for a breathtaking 12 seconds. Since then, aircraft have become much more sophisticated. Now you can discover more than 300 of the most important airplanes of the last 30 years in The Encyclopedia of Modern Aircraft.• This book details some of the finest civil and military aircraft in service today, beginning with classic 1960s commercial airliners like the Boeing 747 through the latest military wonder planes like the F-22 Raptors.• Unique specification tables provide comprehensive information on dimensions, powerplant, performance, and more.• Find out how some of the most famous planes in the sky came to fly. What inspired the F-14 Tomcat? How will the Airbus A380 change the face of commercial travel? Climb into the cockpits and design labs and see!
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