Aircraft of World War II: 300 of the World's Greatest Aircraft

by Christopher Chant

From the moment World War II began--with the German invasion of Poland--to its end in 1945 with the American bombings of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, it was clear that aircraft would play a crucial tactical role. Afterwards, air power became the absolute arbiter of the new world order that emerged from that cataclysmic confrontation. Here are 300 of the top planes from both the Axis and Allied forces, including the famous Supermarine Spitfire, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, North American P-51 Mustang, Messerschmitt Bf 109, and Boeing B-17 Fortress.

Genres: History, Aviation, Military Fiction, World War II, Nonfiction, Aircraft

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Christopher Chant is a successful writer on modern military matters, and has a substantial number of authoritative titles to his credit. Military history, and the history of military aviation in particular have long been his passion. Having been part of the editorial team on Purnell's best-selling 'History of the First World War' and 'History of the Second World War', he became a full-time writer and editor in 1974, working extensively on military and aviation subjects. He is also a regular contributor to specialist journals.

Reviews

[Thomas Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chant prepares a wealth of information on a variety of aircraft from the "big seven" of the U.S.A, Germany, U.K., Japan, U.S.S.R., Italy, and France - and even includes some Dutch, Yugoslavian, Czech, Indigenous Australian, Polish, and Belgian designs among others.

The collection carries with it information about production numbers, armaments, crew sizes, and the political/technological motivations for the designs. Most entries also have statements pertaining to their effectiveness, strengths, and weaknesses during the conflict.

Paired with a useful index that not only sorts the aircraft by type (fighter bombers, flying boats, etc.), but also by Manufacturer (Fokker, Vultee, etc.), this tome was essential in learning more about the various models of aircraft during the WW2 conflict.

My only qualms with the book are threefold; first, presumably due to constraints of limiting the size/length of the book, only certain models of aircraft are illustrated and described. The British Spitfire, for example, was known to have as many as 24 different iterations/models/marks, but the book only features fewer than half of them for brevity's sake.

Second, the book is organized alphabetically, and while the summaries of each aircraft include years designed and produced, it takes time to understand the developmental timeline of most of the aircraft; I would have been delighted if there were an index or table to show the aircraft and how they changed over the years; how fighter planes evolved, how needs of the nations shifted and adjusted, etc.

Third and lastly, I wish the book provided additional notes on the aircraft used by minor and commonwealth nations. The most famous or frequently produced items were indeed featured, but the scope of the book is otherwise limited to these aircraft only. Further information will need to be sought elsewhere.

Moreover, these trifles are easily overlooked by the otherwise comprehensive collection of statistics and history for a large swathe of aircraft.

[Tyson Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was fantastic because each page had a different type of aircraft, bombers to fighters and they had a table of statistics about the plane and underneath, a paragraph of the plane's history and role.

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atlas de aviones. 320 páginas con 300 aviones, más una pequeña introducción histórica. Para cada avión se nos da una resumen de cuándo y por qué entró en servicio, y sus características principales. Como libro de consulta lo veo completísimo, como libro de lectura lineal puede llegar a a saturar, a no ser que seamos ultrafans de los aviones de la IIGM. En conjunto, una edición muy completa.

[Kym Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handsomely illustrated with relevant specifications of the various aircraft attached to always excellent text by Chant, who manages to cover a lot with such a small amount of characters.

76 %

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reference book. Great writeups and pictures of the selection of planes. Very recommended