It has been a while since I've had the pleasure of reviewing a book from AirDoc, so it was with much delight that I opened a parcel from them to find a number of titles. Naturally, I gravitated towards the Phantom one for the first read.

This one is on the history of the Turkish F-4. Turkey is one of a few nations who have upgraded their Phantoms and with the 'Terminator' upgrade and rework performed to a large portion of the fleet by IAI, the aircraft has enough flying hours to remain in service until 2020. As some of their Phantoms are ex-ANG birds from the Missouri ANG, this means that those airframes will be 60 years old and still effective. Quite a feat for any military aircraft. Turkey also had the honor of having the 5,000th Phantom built for them.

Though this is mostly a pictorial, the authors have presented a good history of the type in service for an introduction. Then it is on to page after page of superlative photos of one of your editor's favorite aircraft. These images are divided by the air wings that fly the aircraft and are a look from the first years of operation up until how the force is today. Basically your eye-candy sort of thing.

It all makes for an outstanding book that is sure to delight Phantom Phans and modelers alike.

April 2009

My thanks to AirDoc for the review book. You can find these at your local hobby shop and if not, ask them to order them for you. You can also order direct by e-mailing them at www.airdoc.eu

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