Customer Reviews

P-51 Mustang: From 1940 to 1980 (Planes and Pilots)

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

 

 

Though small, this is a pretty good little book. Many good illustrations and a few photos, with pilot, country, model and conflict info. Very informative.
Found one omission, (9.5 destroyed on ground by Graham in the "Down for Double" in addition to the 7 air kills), but gained plenty of good info.
The only thing keeping the rating at 4 instead of 5 stars is the size of the book (8"X 9 1/2").

Here's a winner of an idea: a color pictorial guide to North American's P-51 Mustang with color profiles from protype through all the wartime models to postwar air racing use. This 2003 Histoire & Collections release by Dominique Breffort and Andre Jouineau attempts to do just that. The end result - THE NORTH AMERICAN P-51 MUSTANG from 1940 TO 1980 - is uneven but one of the better H&C efforts.

Breffort and Jouineau describe and illustrate the Mustang in roughly chronological order, starting with the NA 73X, Mustang I, A-36A Apache, P-51A, P-51B/C, P-51D/K, XP-51F/G/J, P-51H, TF-51D/Cavalier/Enforcer/Piper PA-48/Postwar racers and, finally, the P-82 Twin Mustang. The section on the D model, for example, has four pages of text with three b&w and two color photographs, brief tech specs and 11 pages of color profiles depicting 44 USAF ETO/MTO/PTO P-51s. There are also separate color profile sections on WW II Mustang Aces, the P-51 in Korea, Mustang Users, etc. The text, translated from the French, reads much smoother than most H&C titles.

In all, you're probably getting over 210 P-51 color profiles. The profiles seem generally accurate with the exception of the P-51H and especially the P-82 artwork, which has nose problems. Likewise the camouflage patterns are similar to other artist's renderings.

I've had mixed reactions to H&C titles. Some were pretty good, others were pretty bad. Overall I'd have to rate THE NORTH AMERICAN P-51 MUSTANG FROM 1940 TO 1980 as one of the better H&C titles. Recommended.