Aviation Book, The - The World'S Aircraft a To Z

In this illustrated, systematically presented international survey Fia O. Caoimh uses his deep knowledge to provide a survey of all the main plane types, civil and military, from the pioneering years to today's transonic and aerospace flights. Here you will see the Douglas SDB 'Dauntless', the US Navy's torpedo bomber of 1939; the famed Danish KZ11 Trainer; the Piaggio P.180 'Avanti', now associated with the great Ferrari racing marque; the Czech utility Let Aero 145 transport plane; the Bücker Bü-133 'Jungmeister', aerobatic champion of Europe from 1935; the Japanese seaplane Shin Meiwa US-1, able to carry out rescue in 15 ft waves - in all, over 400 aircraft types, many famous and some rescued from obscurity by Fia O. Caoimh's acute insight into aircraft structures, applied to old drawings or photographs. The book's features include - An A-Z of great flying machines, civil and military, presented alphabetically by manufacturer, each observed and hand-drawn in detail by the author; the complete known technical specifications of all the aircraft included in the book, with information about where the actual aircraft can be seen; an illustrated timeline of man's attempts to fly, from early myths and legends to ventures into space; includes the author's personal selection of strange and original aircraft - some only flown in prototype.