To those of us who have done a lot of reading, the name Dan Hagedorn as the author of a book means that you will be getting not only the best in research, but a jolly good read as well. Dan Hagedorn is probably the best authority on air arms of Latin America that there is so you are always in for a treat when one of his books is published.

This one is a general look at all of the conflicts that have involved aircraft in Latin America (basically Mexico on south) since 1912. 1969 was chosen as a place to stop as that was basically when the last WWII piston engine fighter was used in combat during the 'Soccer War' of Honduras and El Salvador. One of the things that makes this book so exemplary is the sheer number of photographs contained within. Many are in color and most are images I've not seen before. One thing about these air arms is that they used a bewildering variety of different and unusual aircraft in addition to the usual batch of stuff. Post WWII, much of their equipment is ex-US so you'll see the usual variety of planes, many of which are currently flying as warbirds.

Divided into 35 chapters, this book is a bit different from those you have read before. Basically, what you get between the covers are all the photographs and a brief description of the event. The majority of the write-up is on-line at www.hikokiwarplanes.com . It is a format I've not seen used before and from what I see, you are either going to think it is a great way to do things or hate it.

One thing is that it means that the book itself is just about all photographs and superbly drawn color profiles. There is a description of the event plus captions for the photographs. For many, this is enough as it means they don't have to actually read about the events themselves to get to their main interest.

Another is that the full historical write-up for each chapter is listed separately on the web site. Perhaps it is thought that readers will only want certain chapters, but personally, I'd rather have one large download with all of the chapters together. Downloading 35 different files is tedious, especially when one is hampered with a slow connection. It would also take a considerable amount of time and paper to print these all out and require an additional folder to accompany the book if one wants things complete.

I'm also wondering how this will affect those who don't have a computer, yet still want to buy the book. As I said, it is something different and one will have to make up one's mind on how they feel about this sort of thing.

Regardless, of how you feel about the format, this is an exceptional book as it is. I most highly recommend you get your copy soon as this one will sell out quickly.

January 2007

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