Aircraft vs. Aircraft by Norman Franks

[dieg777]

Book Aircraft vs. Aircraft
Author : Norman Franks
Pages : 197
Photos : Lots- nearly one a page and diagrams
Published : 1998


This is a brief history of fighter aircraft from the First World War to the present.
The first 50 pages cover WW1, the next 100 WW2 and the remaining Korea, Vietnam, Falklands and the first gulf war.
This is a big book –A4 in size and the writing is small so a lot is packed into the pages.
Norman Frank does a good job of describing the history of air wars: he includes descriptions of the technology advances, the aircraft involved, how tactics were developed and includes pen portraits of all the well known aces throughout history.
There are also quotes from biographies of fighter pilots but these have been reproduced in other books and articles I have read, so although interesting, they won’t be new to most people. Additionally there are included; diagrams of air encounters and air manoeuvres; tables of specifications and aces. So it certainly covers all the bases.

This is a nice and well presented overall view of the topic, a great introduction to someone who is interested in this area; although if you have other read other books on the subject I dont think that it will add a lot to your knowledge.