One of the more aviation-progressive nations of Central America was the island nation of Cuba. Starting with balloons and moving on to aircraft during the WWI period, Cuba was able to start military aviation by the early 1920s, much with the help of surplus aircraft from the United States. All through the 20s and 30s, the Cuban air force was able to improve the quality and numbers of aircraft, many of those planes coming from the United States.

While many of these planes were various trainers and transports, there did exist a dedicated fighter arm. All of this grew considerably during and after WWII thanks to a glut of surplus US wartime aircraft. This included naval types such as the Avenger and Catalina. There was even a fairly potent bomber arm with B-24s and B-25s, with the latter type making up most of the bomber types. Indeed, the Mitchell was a popular aircraft in the postwar military services of many Latin American countries.

This book is the first volume covering Cuban military aviation and provides a look at the services from inception in 1913 until 1952. A fair amount of the book covers the various people that were important in building the services. Other sections concentrate on various time periods such as WWII and the post war times along with the various aircraft types in both the army air force and naval air forces.

As usual the book is very well researched and quite image intensive. This is something I appreciate and it makes for one of the quicker reads. I can imagine that doing research on a subject like this is not the easiest, but they have pieced together quite a readable history. It makes for a great read and I can recommend this one to you. 

December 2025

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