Once again, a superb book on Russian Aviation from the fine folks at Midland. This time, Yefim Gordon along with Sergy and Dmitriy Komissarov look into American aircraft flown under the red star.

One might immediately think that this will be about Lend-Lease aircraft and for a goodly portion of the book, that would be true. But Russia was very much air minded from the beginning of powered flight, and the earliest planes in the country were Wright aircraft. Curtiss had a major influence with the Russian Navy with many of their flying boats seeing service. Even the times between the wars saw the Soviets trying out US types and building some, like the Vultee V-1 and Catalina, under license.

Though US sales to the Soviet Union were basically non-existent after WWII, they built a large fleet of bombers after back engineering B-29s into their own TU-4. Many lend lease planes were used until the early 1950s and some of those were modified for the peculiar needs of the Soviet air forces. Post cold war types are quite numerous and just about all involved with civil aviation. This includes airliners like the DC-10 and 737 as well as a number of lighter aircraft, some being built under license or as modifications of existing types.

The book itself is divided into sections, the major ones being up to the 1920s, 20's and 30's, WWII, Post War, and after 1991; the latter divided into two other sections on Airliners/Bizjets and Civil Aviation.  Each section  goes into considerable detail on the type and includes a bevy of photos, many of which I have never seen. This is especially true of the pre-WWII section. One has to consider that these are not only aircraft purchased outright but also those that were modified or license built by the Soviet Union/Russia. Even the cold war section has evaluated US types captured in Vietnam.

In all, it is an incredible book that is loaded with superlative photos as well as Midland's excellent drawings. Interspersed throughout the book are a number of excellent profiles as well. This is an outstanding reference on the subject that will be much appreciated by the enthusiast, historian and modeler alike. A book you can buy with the confidence that you are getting the very best.

July 2009

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