Of all the subjects that one could use for an aviation book, this one has to be in the top five of the most interesting and unusual that I've read.

The authors have gathered together all known aircraft, real and project, that have a saucer shaped planform. They also stretch things a bit to include circular winged planes and those that have some other similar and unique shapes.

There are nine sections to the book, each covering a specific category or era of aircraft. There is Early Circular Winged Aircraft, German Wartime Flying Discs, Canada's Cold War Saucers, Postwar Discplane Developments, Russian Flying Discs, Lighter than Air Vehicles and the UFO Connection, Flying Saucer Spacecraft, Fans and Ducts, and Exotic Propulsion Systems.

Each chapter is incredibly fascinating and to this reader, just about all of it was new. I was very much looking for something on the 40' Flying Disc model that I did last year, but did not find anything on it.  However, there was a lot more in there that made up for it. The authors state that there was ten years research going into this book and I believe it. 

Another thing that I found interesting was how generally unsuccessful disc aircraft were. There were some notable exceptions, like the Vought V-173, which was a superlative flying machine, just coming along at the wrong time in history for the full development aircraft, the XF5U-1. I also found the section to Canadian saucer aircraft to be a real eye-opener and something about which I'd never heard.

The book is full of quality photographs, drawings and artwork depicting these most interesting craft. Overall, this is a real page-turner that holds your interest from start to finish. I'd label this as the best I've read in quite a while, and I'm sure you will agree once you get into it.

February 2007

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