Dataview have previously been concentrating on electronic media for its productions, and over the years, the quality of their CDs has been gradually improving. This particular title is a pure research book and was previously released as a CD-ROM.

Of course, the benefit of having something on paper is that you don't need to have a computer to use it. As I do some of my research on the porcelain throne,  having paper in your hands is a lot more convenient than a laptop! :o)

This book is basically two sections. One is a chronological history, broken down by decade, that provides milestones in the history of the USAF. Of course, this book cannot provide any real depth to each of these, but it does provide a place to start as well as give us all sorts of interesting information.

The second part of this a guide to resources, and basically this means various articles. And it means aircraft. Divided into type (Attack, Bombers, etc), there are a goodly number of articles, all apparently from magazines and the huge majority of these from Aviation Week & Space Technology. If anything, this is a bit on the limiting side as I know that there are oodles of other references out there besides AW&ST. Frankly, I don't have a single issue of this magazine in my reference library so for me, this is less than useful. I'm fully aware that delving through every possible reference is nigh impossible, but there are a large number of other references such as Wings/Airpower, Air International, World Airpower Journal, as well as articles in modeling magazines such as Scale Aircraft Modelling  to choose from. There are also a plethora of books on specific aircraft as well. I might suggest that any updated edition include some of these as it will make it just that much more useful. In fact, if you have a listing of references that might help out, I'm sure that Dataview would appreciate the inputs.

Regardless of this, the Dataview book is a useful reference for those who wish to know specifics of the history of the USAF and I know that I'll be using it myself in the years to come.

Review book courtesy of Dataview. Order yours direct

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