Customer Reviews

Combat in the Sky: The Art of Air Warfare

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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...

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.