Usaf Close Air Support

While the final analysis, impressions and judgments reached in this book are strictly my own, they were formed after dozens interviews, flights and a good deal of research. Pilot specialists from each airplane have reviewed the text and all generally support the results. The product is the outcome of my quest to fly the Skyraider's follow-on USAF close-air-support types, to see them from the pilot's perspective on actual training missions and to see what has happened to the CAS mission through the years. I hoped to put the reder in the cockpit with the views of the pilot. When this book was started, there were but three aircraft types involved, the A-37, A-7 and the A-10. Then came the F-16 with its dedicated CAS role with the 138th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Syracuse, New York. For historical and technical data, thanks in particular to the Cessna Aircraft company, the General Dynamics Corporation, the General Electric Company, the LTV Aerospace and Defense Company, USAF Systems Command, Office of Public Affair and the Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright Patterson AFB.