Over the years, the 'secret projects' books have been quite popular with readers, and while the Luftwaffe and Soviets have been major draws, little has been done for the aircraft of the US.

This is the first volume that seeks to right this omission and is authored by Tony Buttler (who has been instrumental in the previous books), and Alan Griffith (who has researched a lot of  American projects).

Let me start this one out by stating that not everything in here is strictly secret, though it may well have been at the time. The book covers US fighters, bombers and attack aircraft from 1937 until the end of the war. This includes aircraft for the US Navy as well as the USAAC/AAF.

Much of this is focused on the Army side of things as frankly, they had the greatest aviation requirement. The various sections of the book cover Army single engine fighters, twin engine fighters, light and medium bombers, heavy bombers, and attack aircraft. For the Navy side of things, we have fighters, attack aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft and flying boats. A final section covers miscellaneous types. There are not a ton of jets in this and what is there is covered under miscellaneous.

The book covers something on every type of aircraft either proposed or put into production during these years. So though you'll find paper projects and ones that did not make it past the mock-up, you'll also find those that made it as far as prototypes and those that entered production. Naturally, there isn't a lot of space given to planes that made it into production like the P-47 or the B-25 or the Hellcat or the Mariner, but they have been included as often the initial proposals and the actual production aircraft were quite different.

The thing that really strikes me are the number of planes that made it into flying prototypes that never could seem to get the bugs worked out of them, or never were able to meet specifications. For example, the P-60 series had tons of money and development put into it, but never was able to reach service. In fact, there were very few planes developed during the war that actually made it into production. The Mustang was designed for the British, and the P-47 was a development of a pre-war design that started with the XP-41. On the Navy side, most of their wartime aircraft were already either entering production, flight testing, or in advanced design before the US entered WWII.

However, the proposals and prototypes while perhaps not as fantastic as those put forth by the Germans, were just as far seeking and interesting as anything from the design boards of Heinkel or Focke-Wulf. The cover artwork proves that.

In each case, as much information as is known is presented and that includes drawings, models or photographs. It all makes for a fascinating read and if you truly want to know what was going through the minds of American designers, then this one is very much for you. Highly recommended.

April 2016

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