Every once in a while there comes a book that you didn't know you had to have until you started reading it. This is one of those books. The North American AT-6/SNJ is one of those planes that seems to have been around forever. In terms of sheer numbers, there are probably more of these still flying than all the other warbirds combined from this particular era. They were operated by seemingly every air force around the world at some time or another and some only very recently gave them up!

What very few people realize is that there is a bewildering number of different aircraft that we all lump under the 'Texan/Harvard' nameplate; I'd tend to say several dozen at the least. Specialty Press chose a superb writer, Dan Hagedorn, to author this particular edition and I'm glad they did. Dan is a real expert on the air forces of Central and South America, where many of the current warbirds were last in military service. Dan's ability to get into the details of the different versions, acknowledge that there are gaps that he couldn't fill in its history, and generally comfortable writing style, makes this book a real pleasure to read. Yeah, there are the usual technical details as that is the forte of this series, but they don't overwhelm the reader and are put to good use.

Though the book itself is no smaller than any of the other in the series, the author has only four major sections:

• The Texan Defined

• Texan Ancestors

• Design Maturity

• Post-War Variants

There is also the usual color section and a list of significant dates that all the WarBird Tech books have in common.

Lots of folks have produced books on this aircraft and many of those books are truly excellent. However, if you want the best variant guide yet published on the Texan/Harvard and its ancestors, then this is a book that you MUST have on your shelf.

My highest recommendation.

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