American Combat Planes of the 20th Century: A Comprehensive Reference (Hardcover)

by Ray Wagner (Author) "When the first military airplane was purchased by the American government, no combat future was envisioned..." (more)
Key Phrases: combat ceiling, miles max, nose enclosure, Air Corps, General Electric, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The most authoritative and comprehensive history of America’s military aircraft ever published.

From World War I to Iraq.

Profusely illustrated with over 1700 photographs.

Each plane arranged by fighting purpose and appearance in history.

Vital facts on every plane - how powerful, how big, how heavy how fast, how high, and how far.

American Combat Planes of the 20th Century is the only complete reference to all the airplanes that created American airpower. It tells the story of the marriage between aircraft and war. Every combat type built in the United States for the Air Force, Navy, or for foreign governments, is included, together with foreign aircraft bought for American fighting units. American Combat Planes of 20th Century is 758 pages, hardcover, printed on high quality coated stock, with a section of color photographs showing the history of military airplane color configurations.

All the planes designed to attack an enemy with guns, bombs, or rockets are described, along with armed reconnaissance aircraft, and those derived from fighter designs, providing a quick reference for each type. Along with famous mass-production types, like the Liberator, Mustang, and Hellcat, with their major modifications, all the little-known experimental projects are included and compared.

Ray Wagner’s definitive work arranges all those planes by their fighting purpose and appearance in history. Even by simply viewing their photographs page by page, the reader sees the story of combat plane design over the years. Below each picture are the vital facts of each type: the engine’s name and power, how big and how heavy that plane is, as well as how fast, how high, and how far it can go.

As the reader follows the text, he learns who made these planes and when. What could each plane do, how many were made, and where were they used? Why each combat plane was built is the most important question, and is best answered by placing each design in the historical context in which it was developed, from America’s entrance into World War One in 1917 to Operation Allied Force in 1999. World War Two is the center focus, along with insights on aircraft involved with conflicts in Nicaragua, China, Spain, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq.

The bibliography indicates this history’s primary sources and is a readers’ guide to the many books and publications to expand your interests.

About the Author
Ray Wagner is a well-known expert in the field of aviation history, having spent over 50 years in firsthand research. His extensive publications include "German Combat Planes," "The Soviet Air Force in World War II," and "Mustang Designer," a revealing description of the life of Edgar Schmued, designer of the successful P-51.

Ray Wagner was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. His interest in aviation history began at a very young age, as demonstrated by his membership as a teenager in the Civil Air Patrol Cadets. He moved to San Diego and after a career teaching history, became the archivist at the San Diego Aerospace Museum.

Having completed this edition of American Combat Planes of the 20th Century, his research continues with the investigation of newly discovered Russian Air Force records.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 758 pages
• Publisher: Jack Bacon & company; 1 edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930083172
• ISBN-13: 978-0930083175
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #886,676 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Combat Planes of the 20th Century, September 15, 2004

By	L. Wicksten "ll13" (Reno, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best "Airplane Book" to come along in a very long time. Speaking as the widow of a pilot, I can tell you that he would have been thrilled with this book. The information and pictures are outstanding. It's the perfect Christmas, Birthday, Father's/Mother's Day or any other day gift that you can give a pilot or anyone interested in aviation. Ray Wagner is a legend in aviation and put an amazing collection of photos with all the information about them together. Jack Bacon is also an outstanding publisher who has an impressive list of books published by his company. I'd give this book 10 stars if I could or more! I guarantee you will enjoy this book if you like planes at all. L. Wicksten, Sparks/Reno, Nevada

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New "Standard Reference" For The Subject, March 18, 2006

By	David L. Staples "Aero Engr." (Wichita, KS USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In the late 60s, when I was ten or eleven years old, a kindly aunt, knowing me to be an oncoming airplane enthusiast, gave me a copy of the 1968 edition of Ray Wagner's original opus, "American Combat Planes." I devoured that book so thoroughly over the years that it finally became a "paperback" when the covers fell off. (Not too long ago I got a "new" copy through Amazon's used-book-finding capability.) I have continued to recommend this old book to younger enthusiasts looking for an encyclopedic reference on this subject. But it has been getting hard to find, and "the plot" stops in 1968.

Fortunately, Wagner's new book on the same subject is not only updated but improved in every way. There are more photographs, more data for each entry, and improved editing. Some of the photos, not just of the strange, rare prototypes but also of many famed front-line aircraft, I have never seen before (which is saying something, if I may breach modesty). There are enhanced summaries of the service effectiveness and even brief unit histories of the more important types, plus greatly expanded information concerning the use of many US machines in foreign service. (It makes one feel better about our unloved P-39 Airacobra, for example, to learn of how much the Soviets adored it.) Included now is information on the quirky but interesting "observation" class of aircraft, completely missing in the old classic. And as near as I can tell, even with all of this new information, nothing at all has been left out. This new book is even more thorough than the old - and of course it has the great advantage of being current up to and including new ships like the B-2 and the F-22.

I recommend "American Combat Planes of the 20th Century" to anyone who wants a compendious reference on this subject. This book should be on the shelf of every airplane enthusiast.

5.0 out of 5 stars A good resource and a good read, January 9, 2009

By	Daniel Hamilton (WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ray Wagner has produced his seminal work in "American Combat Planes of the 20th Century." Though unfortunately not containing the full color drawings of aircraft color schemes as do some lesser references, "American Combat Planes" is the rarest of resources -- a truly good read all on its own. Unlike encyclopedic reference books that mind numbingly describe "famous planes" one after another, or alphabetize an endless number of aircraft descriptions by manufacturer --and out of all historical context -- Wagner's book is organized both to be a comprehensive reference AND to tell a story.

As a reference book, its publishers take justifiable pride in the boast that Wagner's work includes every (not just every "famous" or "important") aircraft (and their variants) that America made or used that was "designed to attack an enemy with guns, bombs or rockets." Hence, though it discusses Grumman's XF5F "Skyrocket" that was never picked up by the Navy, it also informed me about an equally unproduced version of the same aircraft built for the Army as the XP-50. The book also provides the most recent scholarship concerning each American warplane. Apparently, and not surprisingly on thinking about it, a combat aircraft's actual characteristics or numbers produced were often misstated during war time or the procurement process and such false "data" took on a life of its own and continued to be cited in subsequent references on the subject. For example, the Bell Airacuda had a top speed that was over 45 mph less and a service ceiling almost 5,000 feet lower than was advertised. Finally, all this information is provided in a beautiful book filled with approximately 1700 photographs and the occasional illustration and table. My one nitpick on the photos is that though data on the characteristics of the plane represented are given in the caption, nothing is said about where and when the photo was taken and several of the photos simply cry out for such an explanation of the circumstances involved (e.g. why does the 1930's Keystone B-4A bomber depicted in a beautiful page-width in flight photo have the "gunner" operating a movie camera instead of a defensive weapon? Was the photo taken while filming a air war movie? There certainly is a story there somewhere!)

As an actual readable book, "American Combat Planes" also tells a story about the evolution of familiar and unfamiliar American combat planes and plane types - including those that became developmental dead ends (for example, again, the intended use of the Airacuda to attack unescorted enemy bombers far from American shores). It does so by first dividing up the epic of 20th Century American combat aircraft into four parts: "The Biplane Period" (1917-1932), "Monoplanes for World War II" (1931-1945), "Air Weapon for the Cold War" (1946-1962), and "An Awesome Generation since 1963" (1963-2001). Each part is introduced by a chapter giving a historical overview of the needs or threats, real or perceived, that led to the particular development of the aircraft types of that particular era and concluded by a chapter or two on a particular developmental trend of interest. In between, each era is broken down into sections correlating to various combat types. For example, the chapters in Part I are entitled: "Close Support for the Army" (1917-1923), "The First Fighters" (1915-1923), "Multi-engine Bombers" (1917-1932), "Army Pursuits" ((1920-1932), "Army Observation and Attack" (1922-1933), "Flying Boats for Navy Patrols" (1917-1934), "New Weapons for the Navy" (1918-1933); "Navy Observation Aircraft" (1917-1932), and "Adapting Fighters to Flight Decks." Within each of these sections the reader can views and read how each plane of that particular type evolved over time, what it replaced, and what it ultimately was replaced by -- allowing the reader to see how aircraft developed and learn about the reasons why. Along the way are wonderful tidbits of new information, at least for me (e.g. the first American pilot killed in a dogfight with the Japanese over China, and also the Japanese Navy's first aerial victory, was Robert Short in 1932 -- almost a decade before the attack on Pearl Harbor - when he was "demonstrating" a Boeing P-12 variant for the U.S. Army by defending Soochow against Japanese bombers from the carrier Kaga and was shot down by Type 3 fighter escorts). Also scattered throughout are interesting topics that I, at least, have never come across before -- such as the evolution of defensive weaponry for bombers and the development of the "attack" aircraft type as distinguished from the "fighter" and "bomber" types.

Ray Wagner's "American Combat Planes of the 20th Century" provides the reader not only the authoritative resource for beginning any research on any American combat aircraft, but an entertaining understanding of its importance in the larger scheme of history.