One of the more popular subjects for aircraft books are those that are a compilation of  multiple aircraft types and offer not only impressive photos of these planes, but also brief operational and unit histories. This is such a book.

It basically covers most of the combat aircraft that are currently in use by the US. It makes no mention at all of any of the various training aircraft and misses a few other types such as the C-21 and C-26, though oddly, it does talk about all the types operated by the 89 AW that haul around politicians.

The majority of the book is on the US Air Force with a smaller section on the Navy and Marines and even smaller ones on the Army and Coast Guard. The book is lavishly illustrated with large images, many of which, unfortunately, straddle the 'ditch' between pages. I've never been able to understand why editors insist on doing this as it is a very poor way to present an image. I can only assume that they are trying to get maximum space filled so that they can use fewer images and keep down costs. Many of the images in the book were taken by the authors and that often results in lower quality images, again, in an effort to save money. Then again, it is quite possible that most readers are not photographers and won't realize that very early AM images where everything is tinted orange or photos taken at shows with the usual show tents and other non-military items in the image are present. Fortunately, these types of photo are few, but to those of us with any aircraft photography background, they do jump out at us.

The book also includes charts for each of the various aircraft types that provide the squadrons in which they serve as well as any tail code information. There are a few glitches like calling the U-2S a U-25 in the unit charts and the omission of some total unit designations and bases, but otherwise, it is useful information to those who follow such things and that alone helps to make this a useful reference. As often happens with books, new information often outpaces what is published so there is no mention of the demise of the RAH-66 Commanche, the fact that the C-9A Nightingale has been retired from active USAF service along with most of the C-9B/C versions, and goes on to mention that the S-3 Viking fleet will be reworked and viable until 2015, when the last of these squadrons will probably be gone within the next year along with the F-14 Tomcat.

For those who want to know more about current US combat aircraft and want a nice primer on what is going on with US military aviation, this is a book that will be both informative and interesting.

Available in bookstores everywhere, through Classic Motorbooks at (800) 826-6600 or at http://www.motorbooks.com/.

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