No Margin for Error: The Making of the Israeli Air Force

by Ehud Yonay

The Israeli-born, award-winning investigative reporter, whose story about U.S. Navy fighters was made into the movie Top Gun, presents an important military history, with all the excitement of a high-tech adventure, focusing on a heroic group of youngsters as they are molded into the highly-skilled pilots of one of the world's most sophisticated air forces. Photos.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Aviation

426 pages, Hardcover

First published April 13, 1993

Reviews

[Barry Sierer · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of the war in 1948, the fledgling (and unproven) IAF lost its foreign volunteers and with it, the majority of its trained talent. The remaining staff had to turn to training, and organizing, homegrown talent nearly from scratch. This was a long and painful journey riddled with failure, rampant indiscipline, and deadly accidents. The cult of the aggressive pilot was frequently coupled with the danger of unauthorized aerobatic displays and flights over enemy territory. (One pilot in the 1950’s flew solo over Syria “just see what movies were playing in Damascus”).

The men who created the modern IAF were not just great flyers such as Ezer Weisman, but also the men who created the technical manuals and training regiments from scratch such as Moti Hod, as well as the Commanders who fought the IAF’s bureaucratic battles to give their service the flexibility it needed.

Ehud Yonay’s work provides a great balance between telling great war stories while focusing on struggles of building the IAF as an organization

[WAYNE DIAMOND · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too much detail for dog fights and Israeli Air Force.

[Yvette Ort · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a true account of the Israeli fighters and the inspiration for the movie Top Gun. Excellent read.

[Eliyahu Torre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that describes in depth the key characters in the development of the Israeli Air Force. No Margin for Error gives a exact account of the missions and battles fought and won by the IAF that made it what it is today.

[Godlarvae · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most amazing tale of a group of highly motivated people, defending themselves with almost nothing. Be amazed to what lengths they went with gun-sling chutzpa while developing into a thoroughly modern, efficient, intricate, razor honed group of true citizen soldiers, with huevos of titanium.
Fascinating to see what imprint was made by whoever was chosen to lead--brilliant men of incredible, diverse gifts, bring their particular genius to the table.
This is not to say that there were not disastrous decisions made, that these men did not have their fair share of "warts". They were imperfect but what imperfections!
. . . and a testament of the ineffectuality of dealing with those without what we consider to be European ideas of right and wrong.