Specialty Press has long been known for providing high quality books that are both informative and interesting to read. This one is not only a great book, but comes with a 60 minute DVD on some of the more interesting aspects of aviation, that of the fire bomber.

The story of fire bombing goes back to the time when the US population started to expand westward. As they did so, they moved into areas that are very prone to fire. In the past, this unpopulated area was simply left to burn as during the hot summer months, lightning would often torch several millions of acres annually. After one particularly nasty fire, it was determined that something had to be done. However, WWI interfered with that work. Post war, aviation seemed to be a great way to spot fires and during the interwar years, many methods were tried to provide air dropped water.

It wasn't until after WWII that things got into gear. All the canister methods of dropping water or retardant had failed. Straight water dropping had never really been tried as the experts determined it wouldn't work. Well, they were wrong and by the mid 1950s, war surplus aircraft, mostly biplane trainers, were successfully dropping water on small fires. With the success of those planes, larger and larger aircraft were modified and brought into fighting fires.

In his book on fire bombers, author Fredirick A Johnsen looks at the complete history of Fire Bombers in the US and in Canada. This includes a full rundown of all the various aircraft types that have been used in fighting fires. There is a full history of the airborne fire fighting work that has been done as well as a look at how these planes are used and the requirements for fire fighting aircraft. There is a full listing of all aircraft used in this job since the early successes of the mid-1950s. Not surprisingly, most of the planes are surplus military types.

Included in the book is a one hour DVD that includes a number of home movies, videos and an official US Forest Service movie on fighting fires from fifty years ago that includes the required warbly music soundtrack! Itself this video is simply fascinating stuff.

So once again, Specialty Press has hit a grand slam with this book. It is a fascinating read and has a huge number of quality photos of the planes and men involved in fire fighting. Many of them are published here for the first time. For fans of the genre or those who just like interesting aircraft, this book is most highly recommended.

September 2010

Review book courtesy of Specialty Press, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb aviation and modeling books. Visit their website at the link above or call them at 1-800-895-4585

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