Great Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown [Hardcover]

William Green (Author)

Book Description

Series: Great Book | Publication Date: November 14, 2001

Without a doubt the most comprehensive illustrated volume on fighter aircraft ever published! This first comprehensive encyclopedia of the fighter genus is the product of years of painstaking research to describe the development of every fighter type flown up to the beginning of 2001 anywhere in the world. Unrivalled in scope among published references, The Great Book of Fighters features rare historical photographs, meticulously executed arrangement drawings, and over 450 beautiful color profile artworks of aircraft in operational markings. Large-scale cutaway drawings reveal internal structure in minute detail of more than 80 of the world's most significant fighters. From the birth of the type during World War I to the latest stealthy, sophisticated machines now being flight-tested for service with tomorrow's air forces - the famous, the notorious, and the virtually unknown are gathered together in this sensational volume complete with development histories and production details. Filled with more than 4,000 illustrations, including 2,340 photographs and 1,200 general arrangement drawings. An essential reference for every enthusiast's bookshelf.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press (November 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760311943
• ISBN-13: 978-0760311943
• Product Dimensions: 13.4 x 10.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,590,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for aviation enthusiasts, November 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown (Hardcover)

Twenty-five years ago I bought William Green's 'Warplanes of the Third Reich' and still consider it the best aviation reference book in my library. This book doesn't contain the same extreme level of detail of the other book but is still quite impressive. With a photo and brief description of 1700 fighters this book will excite any aircraft enthusiast.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference and a fantastic value, March 6, 2006

By 

DL - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown (Hardcover)

The name sounds like something for 6-year-old kids but this is a serious work. The coverage is exceptional and unlike so many other books in this category this one does not play favorites. The major US, British, and WW2 Luftwaffe aircraft are covered well, but so are all the obscure types. Depth and amount of text accompanying some of the more obscure Soviet fighters is particularly impressive, as are the cutaways of more rare and unusual aircraft (e.g. Dewoitine D.510) as well as some deserving but forgotten types (CAC Boomerang, Ouragan, Su-17). All eras, from WW1 to modern, are given fair treatment.

Each aircraft is given a history of development, notable service, and variants (in most cases, significant variants have separate entries), followed by the specs. In addition to 80+ cutaways there are 470 color profiles, and there is a plethora of well-reproduced photos many of which I've not seen before. The book claims to cover over 1,700 aircraft and there was nothing I could throw at it that it didn't cover, including obscure French, Italian and Soviet designs.

I do have a few complaints. The book could have used another round of proofreading -- there are no factual errors I could find but I came across some misspellings and misplaced photos (many concentrated in the F-4 Phantom II article for some reason). Being a book on military aircraft, it's strange to find armament information tucked into the text and not delineated in the specifications. The same goes for engine specs. And the cutaways, while very nice and detailed (200+ items labeled in the key is typical for modern aircraft) span two pages which means information is lost in the crease.

Overall, this book is a superb value and in many ways a superior alternative to Jane's.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive Reference Guide w/o Narrative, October 4, 2004

By 

Jeffrey Morseburg (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown (Hardcover)

This is an excellent reference book for those of us who enjoy airplanes and military history. A vast, double-folio sized book, Fighters is a comprehensive illustrated volume which attempts to cover virtually every fighter plane ever produced - from ill-fated prototypes to successful mass-produced planes like the Supermarine Spitfire, Mig 15, McDonnell-Douglas Phantom and the Grunmann F-14 Tomcat. The text is straightforward, terse and technical, but then, this is a reference work, not a narrative volume. Written by William Green, Gordon Swanborough and Mike Spick, all veteran aviation journalists, Fighters is a great table-top reference for the aviation enthusiast.