Collins/Jane's Combat Aircraft (Collins Pocket Guide) [Paperback]

Terry Gander (Author), Christopher Chant (Author), Bob Munro (Author)

Book Description

Series: Collins Pocket Guide | Publication Date: September 1995

Hundreds of photographs and fascinating technical data in a handy, pocket-sized format make the Jane's Gems particularly convenient and accessible.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jane's is a military publisher that supplies reference books, magazines, and multimedia packages to the professional market, including the Pentagon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 2nd Printing edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0004708466
• ISBN-13: 978-0004708461
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 3.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,814,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Acceptable for an air show- terrible for the field!, March 23, 2008

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Collins/Jane's Combat Aircraft (Collins Pocket Guide) (Paperback)

I found this Collins/Jane's Pocket Guide to be very disappointing. The reason for this is its lack of organization. In fact, it is only organized alphabetically- while this may be handy enough at an air show, it is bloody worthless in the field. You have to know what company manufactured an aircraft before you can even begin to look it up- apart from random flipping.

Now, the companion Collins/Jane's volume MODERN TANKS is extremely well organized (first by type- main battle tank, armoured car, armoured personnel carrier, then by nationality, and finally by the date that it entered service.) By contrast this volume doesn't even separate aircraft by fixed or rotary wing! I realise that this is the age of multi-role aircraft but couldn't they even separate entries by air superiority, ground attack, sea control, and then rotary wing? Then they could also have organized at least around nationality within these larger catagories.

One other major disappointment is that they do not even include RANGE in the performance specs. A minority of entries do include an endurance figure in hours, but only a minority.

I got the distinct impression that while a great deal of thought went into MODERN TANKS, this volume on COMBAT AIRCRAFT was slapped together with little thought at all.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Small, concise, but hampered by lack of space, April 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Collins/Jane's Combat Aircraft (Collins Pocket Guide) (Paperback)

This is a handy reference to have when reading tales of aviation adventure in WW2. The book itself is small, smaller than those yellow 'used-car value' books, and because of its lack of size it doesn't go into the variants of any particular airplane. What you get is 3 paragraphs of text about a plane, a photograph so you can visualize the plane, and a list of technical specifications such as engine, armament, rate of climb, etc. On the upside, just about every airplane is listed, including those used in the Spanish Civil War. On the downside, you don't get too much depth about each airplane's sub-variants. I feel that if they had made the book itself a bit larger, Jane's would have been able to include a lot more material. Still, there's enough information there to make you feel comfortable with the airplane type and allows you to understand whatever passage you were reading in the WW2 story that prompted you to refer back to this book in the first place.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This a good book, March 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Collins/Jane's Combat Aircraft (Collins Pocket Guide) (Paperback)

This is a great book for the person that loves aircraft but doesn't want to carry around a ten pound book. It has a picture of every aircraft it describes. There is two full pages dedicated to each aircraft. All in all it is nice and handy book to have around.