Yefim Gordon is a highly respected author who specializes in Soviet aircraft. His latest book is one on an aircraft that is a favorite of mine and other aircraft enthusiasts, the MiG-17. Until now, there has not been much in the way of authoritative books on one of the Soviet Unions most prolific jet fighters. That has now been amended with this particular book.

Before getting into the book itself, here are the usual stats: 8½ x11, softbound, 144 pages, 172 black and white with 32 color photos, 12 pages of drawings and 10 pages of color profiles.

Most Aerofax books follow a standard format in terms of their larger books. This one is quite similar in that there is a background on MiGs, an initial section on the development of the type, followed by a rather large section on the various subtypes and dizzying array of specials and prototypes. If nothing else, the Soviets were willing to experiment!

Since the MiG-17 was built in places other than the USSR, there is a large section on Chinese, Czech and Polish production. Next is a section on the various conflicts involving the aircraft. This is a lot briefer than I'd have liked, but it does give a snapshot of its use in a rather large number of combat actions, most of which left the MiG on the losing end.

Chapter five goes into world-wide operators, and with over 40 nations using the type in one form or another, this is a large section. It also includes known serial numbers of the planes of various nations. I found it rather odd that for a book published in 2002, the majority of information in this section seems to stop around 1991. There are a few pages on MiG-17 systems followed by the color pages and profiles. The last section is for drawings of the different types. No scale is given though it seems pretty close to 1/72.

The book contains enough technical information to satisfy most without putting other readers into a daze. The photos are superb and most are new to me. The profiles and drawings only add icing to a very tasty cake.

Highly recommended

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