Customer Reviews

The B-45 Tornado: An Operational History of the First American Jet Bomber

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My father and father in law were both in the USAF assigned to the bases and aircraft involved in this time period. I was along for the ride as a rather impressionable young man making my way through grade school and high school at the time, but I do remember the aircraft.
This book helped fill in the blanks.The author covers not only the aircraft itself but the histories of the units involved, the air crews , the ground crews and the major commands.The infighting between SAC and TAC made you wonder if the USAF really did know what they were doing. I don't think he left any thing out. The comments from the crew members in the air and on the ground really bring it home.
As he points out the B-45 is hardly covered in aviation history and few people have heard about. This book changes that.This book isn't for the casual aircraft picture book crowd as it get's into the aircraft, the history, the politics and the day to day aspects of the B-45.
One suggestion, don't pass on the foot notes as they add quite a bit more to the story.
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This is book is good summary of an often overlooked aircraft of the Cold War. As a member of the USAF for the past 17 years, I enjoy reading about the men who paved the way before me. It is amusing to see Maintenance had to deal with parts shortages and horrible weather conditions just as they do today. I enjoyed how Mr. Fredriksen contributed various interviews from the maintainers who worked the B-45. All too often, aviation authors write only about pilots and operations and leave out the forgotten maintainers.
This book is not only a good read, but very educational not only for the aircraft, but also a glimse of the political environment in the early 1950's. The author covers the B-45's various AORs to include, England, Japan, Korea and the States. This book is packed with daily stories that came from official squadron/wing histories as well as numerous personal interviews.
The reason I gave this book 4 stars is because it could be so much more on the side of packaging. This is a note to Mr. Fredriksen, if there is going to be a revised edition, please consider my recommendations. For $36 this book is steep for a paperback and all black and white format. If I were king for a day, I'd place some color photos strategically throughout this book. I'd also put a few maps of the operating areas. For example, I know where Yokota, Misawa and Sculthorpe are, but the average ready probably has never heard of such bases. Maybe even a map of the Russian overflight paths. I'd also enlarge it (dimension wise), because the quotes were quite small to read. Lastly, a book of this level of work deserves a hard cover.
Even as a "4", I can recommend this book to any aviation or Cold War buff.

With so little published about the B-45, I was eager to get it. Well, if your interest is in crew/operations stories, here's your book. But if you're interested in the B-45 aircraft, keep the wallet in your pocket. There's very little about the machine itself, pictures are few, generally known and printed on such low-quality paper as to be almost unreadable.

Too much day-to-day minutia. Absolutely no performance data about the airplane (combat radius, max altitude,max carrying capacity,
max thrust from the J47s, TO distance, pattern speeds, etc. There are many unanswered questiions about procedures (why shut down both engines on
a side if only one has failed, what backup systems existed for landing gear, flight controls, etc). The idea for such a book is great; we need more such books about some of the forgotten airplanes. But we need better information on performance.

The North American B-45 Tornado, the USAF's first jet-powered bomber, has been neglected in military aviation literature and author John Fredriksen has presented the reader with THE definitive book on the subject. I have to totally reject a recent one star (out of five) review this book received in the May issue of Air Classics Magazine which is completely out of line to, if not beyond, the point of irrespondsibility. The reviewer attacks the book as "abysmal" on its price of $45 ("in view of today's uncertain economic climate....as beyond absurd") WOW!!and as having "terrible production values." Don't believe any of this! As the author of books on neglected bombers, the B-32 and B-18, I smpathize with Mr. Fredriksen who has expended many hours on writing this 5 Star book which I highly recommend. At $45 and at 272 pages of excellent content it is well worth the cost.