Combat Aircraft of the World: From 1909 to the Present

For the first time in aviation publishing, all the military aircraft that have ever entered squadron service with any country in the world are brought together in one volume. Arranged under twenty-six countries of manufacture, some 800 types of combat aircraft are described and illustrated. Approximately 2,000 photographs and three-view line drawings illustrate the main types and important varieties. Statistics and performance data for each type are presented in tabular form, and the book is arranged so that text, tables and illustrations for each aircraft all appear on the same double-page spread. For completeness and ease of reference Combat Aircraft of the World is unrivalled.The introduction summarizes the history of military aircraft design, beginning with the earliest pioneers and concluding with the TSR.2. Many of the illustrations in this section are of important prototypes and research design but did not themselves enter first-line service.A comprehensive index of aircraft types, fully cross-referenced, completes the book.Combat Aircraft of the World is a definitive work of reference, giving the basic history and technical details of what are perhaps the most interesting and important classes of aircraft produced by the aviation industries of the world. It is a book for which there has long been a need, and it will prove indispensable to historians, students, model makers, technicians, libraries, and all aircraft enthusiasts.