Customer Reviews

MIG Master: The Story of the F-8 Crusader

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

 

 

Barrett Tillman has long set the standard for aircraft histories, and this volume is an outstanding work dedicated to a unique, often forgotten and under-rated aircraft. The achievements of the F-8 aircraft and its fliers are well covered and entertainingly rendered in this fast reading narrative. An essential work for anyone interested in jet fighters, Vietnam air combat, or air warfare in general.

This book focus only on the F-8, thelast Navy fighter that was designed for gun air combat. You can find very detailed air combat record in Vietnam, including the time, place and names and you can really enjoy the contents and understand the other side of the stories of Navy air combat history in Vietnam

This hard cover book was a great bargain! It arrived very soon after the order was placed. Its condition was far better than advertised! I love it. And my F-8 driver neighbor will also.

This is a very good history book on the F-8, I thought it was written very well and it reads nice. It covers everything you need to know about "The Last of the Gunfighters." It goes over its development and beginnings in the 1950's to its awesome performance in combat over Vietnam. The book also lightly covers the F-8's twilight years in the US Navy and its international service with the French Navy and Philippine Air Force.

Basically, if you're looking for a good overview of the F-8, then this is your book. If your looking for the tactics of the US Navy and how the F-8 was employed in Vietnam, then I highly recommend "On Yankee Station - The Naval Air War Over Vietnam" which goes very well as a companion book to "MiG Master." F-8 pilot and MiG Killer John Nichols co-wrote "On Yankee Station" with Barrett Tillman.

This first edition of "MiG Master" was written in 1980, and the second edition was released in 1990. The version of this book currently for sale is a 2007 paperback version of the 1990 second edition. This is the version I have and read and I gave this book 4 stars because of some problems I had with its formatting. This 2007 paperback has approx 5 1/2" across for each page and has an annoying 2 1/2" of margin space! The inside margins are set at 1/4" and the outside margins at 2 1/4" and the text is shoved way inside the page and is very annoying.

On the brighter side, the book comes with several b&w photos spread throughout which are very nice and crisp and look great. The photos are thankfully not limited to the annoying margins and some fill half a page.

Since the second edition of this book was written in 1990, the F-8 Crusader was retired by the French Navy in 1999 and in so doing became the last country to fly them. So a third edition of this book would be very much welcomed to fix the text formatting and to update the final chapter on its international service. Even without these fixes, the book is still a good read and I definitely recommend it for anybody interested in learning more about The Last Gunfighter.

An account of several F-8 versus Mig encounters during the Wietnam War.
It also gives an insight about the men that flew them and their opinions.
A wonderful read for anyone interested in military aviation.

Barrett Tillman has long been the "gold standard" in naval aviation writing, and nowhere is his expertise more evident than in MiG Master. Long a classic in naval aviation literature, it is a solidly researched, exciting account that blends in equal measure the history of aviation technology, naval strategy, and combat operations, all well-seasoned with a strong "in the cockpit" flavor that is guaranteed to keep the reader firmly glued in the seat from the moment the book is opened until it is finished. Tillman's take is that the F-8 was a crucial fighter at a critical period in Vietnam air war history. Called at the time the "Last of the Gunfighters," it was the most successful air-to-air fighter of the war in classic high-g swirling furball dogfights. Considered by many an anachronism before the war began--an era when air-to-air missiles, then in the early stage of their own development, were hugely overvalued--the F-8 instead proved its mastery over a variety of opponents, all the way from supersonic merges and breaks in the substratosphere to tail-chases at levels so low that reeds in rice paddies were blown about by the F-8's aerodynamic wake. The combat results validated both the expectations of its designers, the training and expertise of its particularly aggressive pilots, and the dedication and skill of its maintainers, both ashore and afloat. Altogether a remarkable book by a remarkable historian, and an evocative portrayal of an era in naval aviation that is, alas, no more.

MiG Master tells the tale of the F-8 (also known as the F8U) Crusader. The F-8 Crusader was a fighter developed in the 1950's and was flown by Navy and Marine pilots during the Vietnam War. Mr. Tillman tells us of the development, procurement, deployment, and fighting history of the Crusader.

My Likes:
I picked up this book because I was mainly interested in learning about the Crusaders service during the Vietnam War (note: I learned some from Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam, 1965-1972 but wanted to expand my horizons somewhat). To support this, Mr. Tillman provides two chapters on Crusader service in Vietnam, one on the general usage of the aircraft and the other describing the air-to-air engagements. The air-to-air engagement chapter (MiG Encounters is it's name) provides good details on the individual engagements between Mig's and Crusaders.

Another nice piece is the Glossaries. Here we about lots of interesting trivia about the Crusader from different variants, mapping for the original Navy identification code (F8U-nnn) to its Joint code (F-8E, F, etc...), to it's service in Vietnam (carriers it was assigned to , kills, etc...).

My Dislikes:
I'm going to open with the general structure of the book. Mr. Tillman writing seems a little clunky and chunky. In repeated chapters Mr. Tillman failed to define acronyms in their first use (Glossary F does function as an acronym/slang list) and repeats portions of his story. Furthermore several chapters layout promoted confusion about the F-8 or had data that seemed totally out of place or not really related.
While the Vietnam chapters (The Vietnam Years and MiG Encounters) were the best in the book, I had problems with the layout because The Vietnam Years covered all uses of the Crusader and MiG Encounters then went back and only covered the air-to-air engagements. I would have rather have had one chapter where Mr. Tillman presented the Crusaders Vietnam service in total, blending air-to-air with its other missions.
My last dislike was the failure to include drawing depicting engineering aspects of the F-8, armament configuration, or cockpit layout.

The Rating:
Three stars. I was really excited to learn about the F-8 Crusader and this one let me down. I was looking for a good book on the F-8 Crusader (ala F-105 Thunderchief: Workhorse of the Vietnam War) but got something that didn't scratch the itch I had. This book is a good summary of the F-8, but not one I'd want if I could only have one book on the F-8.

Book arrived within a few days and was in the condition that it was described or better, very happy with there service.