Combat in the Sky: The Art of Air Warfare [Hardcover]

Philip Handleman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2003

Combat in the Sky vividly portrays the heart-stopping drama of aerial combat in over 85 full-color paintings and illustration paintings by the world's leading aviation artists from North America and the United Kingdom. Artwork from the world's famous artists include Keith Ferris, James Dietz, William Phillips, and Craig Kodera. This artful time capsule offers a glimpse at history-making planes such as the Enola Gay, through the fighters and bombers of the Korean and Vietnam wars, to the high-tech aerial weaponry of Desert Storm and the modern era. While these stunningly captivating works of art serve as the book's core, descriptive captions for each painting and an authoritative and informative text create a cohesive whole.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760314683
• ISBN-13: 978-0760314685
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 10.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,255,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, short on pictures and heavy on blah blah, August 17, 2009

By 

Maciej "Darth Maciek" (Darth Maciek is out there...) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Combat in the Sky: The Art of Air Warfare (Hardcover)

I must agree with the previous reviewer - this book is a disappointment. There is very few large paintings - almost all the space is devoted to the text. Most of the paintings are very small (less than half a page) which takes off most of their interest. There is a lot of the white and black small size pictures (mostly of the pilots) but this is really not what I bought this book for. I was certain that it was a book af art of air warfare - and it seems I was deceived on the purpose by the publisher.

And finally, the text - it is HORRIBLE! Very little useful information is given, and most of it is served "a la sauce des cliches" (forgive my French) which makes it partly boring and partly upsetting. Oh, and of course all air warfare was always made by Americans... do not expect British, German, Russian, Japanese, French or Italians to appear in the pages of this book. There is just one Polish guy and it gives the author the occasion to say some mean things on Polish fight against Germans in 1939...

All in all, a disappointment. Do not waste your money...

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No dogfights, just word-fights., September 28, 2008

By 

Barton J. Chandler "Bartonmaru" (Dover, Delaware United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Combat in the Sky: The Art of Air Warfare (Hardcover)

This is a text heavy book of fair to middling aviation art. The text is blah blah rah-rah America, than anything else. And since Handleman does not confine himself to WW I & II, but goes into the modern age, in which there is a lot of hyperbole and searching for some glorious instance in aerial combat. Unfortunately, that ended with World War II, and has not been translated to the modern era, since wars are not being fought by giant industrial powers whose existence is at stake. Although there is a long bio of R.G. Smith, there is only one of his works. Also, you will not find anything by Taylor, Trudigan, and Fellows. The redeeming features are the work of first tier artists Cohen, Dietz, and Kodera, and following them a bevy of tier 2 & 3 artists. So only, buy the deeply discounted copies.