The Arado Ar-234 series of aircraft was able to garner a few aviation firsts. It was the first purposely designed and operated jet bomber and it was the first four engine jet to fly. The Arado company was pretty much state owned, unlike others such as Heinkel and Dornier. As such, they did not have to deal with a board of directors nor any stock holders. This allowed them somewhat more freedom.

Arado was well known for a series of successful trainer aircraft as well as their Ar-196 float plane. They also built the designs of other companies as part of the war effort so it was not a small concern. They were tasked with building a jet powered bomber. The head designer had no real interest in the subject so foisted it off on another. After the usual design and development work, the first prototype was ready to go in 1943. In order to save weight that the rather anemically powered jet engines were to carry, it was designed to be operated from a take off trolley, landing on skids beneath the fuselage and under each engine nacelle.

This method operated well on the ground, but using it caused other issues. Initially it was to be released at about 1,000 feet and fall back on a parachute. Many were destroyed and so the height was lowered. Even at low altitude, most dollies did not survive their initial use. Eventually, the aircraft released the dolly while it was still on the ground. This worked, but it was not the answer. The answer was a later design that sacrificed one of the fuselage fuel tanks for landing gear. The aircraft was lengthened and widened to allow this and is the version of which most of us are familiar.

Engines on early jets were a real issue. The aircraft was designed around the BMW 003, but these engines were notoriously unreliable and so most aircraft were powered by Junkers 004. Eventually the BMW plant got a big influx of funds and this allowed reliability of its engines to dramatically increase. All the production four engine Ar-234Cs were powered by these. However, most of the war missions were flown by Ar-234Bs and their two Jumo 004s.

This is one of Kagero's 3D productions. That pretty much means two things. One is that there will be two volumes. The other is that over half the book will be a myriad of superbly done CAD drawings of various parts of the aircraft. This volume concentrates on the cockpit, landing gear and surrounds. There are also a number of overall CAD drawings of the Ar-234B. In addition there are photos of the Smithsonian's plane as well as several pages of profiles.

The actual write-up is confined to the development history of the aircraft and all its various subtypes, whether actually built or not. There are lots of development photos and more images of the various wooden mockups than I have ever seen in one book. The next volume will undoubtedly cover the service history as well as more CAD drawings of the parts of the plane not shown in this volume. Also included in this volume are full plans in all three major scales. The 1/48 and 1/32 plans are huge foldouts that are superbly drawn. As a note, it states that almost all rivets and panel lines were filled in, making for a very smooth presentation. I expect modelers to start filling in panel lines on their next kits! A great book for the fan and one I'm sure will be greatly appreciated.