Customer Reviews

Snakes in the Cockpit: Images of Military Aviation Disasters

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I was somewhat disappointed by the book. Having been around airplanes a good part of my life, I've seen countless photos of crashes and mishaps. Many of the photographs selected were rather mundane and some of the captions questionable. As an example, a B-52 sequence is described as being the aftermath of a "crash." A close look at the photo shows ground equipment still hooked up to the "Buff" and it parked next to a hanger. Obviously this was some sort of a ground/maintenance mishap. Another shot shows an F4F Wildcat-not F6F Hellcat--against a carrier's island. I can never understand why books are published with detracting errors like this in them.

I would have liked more descriptive text attached to the photos. What happened to the crew? What were the circumstances of the crash/mishap? Was the accident due to mechanical failure or human error?

I need to state up front that I'm an airplane fanatic. If they put a picture of an airplane on rat poison I'd buy it. Ok, so I've thought about buying this book for a while, and have. Here's what I think: the book is solid, good, and well printed. The content, though, is a little "fluffy." What the author has done is blown up old grainy pictures, and included brief descriptions of what he supposes happened (which as other reviewers have mentioned is sometimes just DEAD WRONG!). IMHO, Googling airplane military crash would get you about the same results. I'm a little disappointed with the deliberate sepia toning that's been done here too.
On the plus side, the book is well bound, printing is crisp (despite lousy image quality in some cases) & the sheer variety of subject matter is mildly impressive.
Summing up, this is an odd book, worth a quick look at the library, but not essential to the military aviation buff.

I bought this book at the Warner Robins Air Museum in Georgia. What grabbed me is the agonizing photo of a Loring AFB Maine B-52 burning. Having been stationed there and very fond of the B-52 it was like looking at a old friend pass away. Lots of good photos and I agree with the reviewer about the lack of text. Should have had more information on the incidents. Overall I would buy this book again just for the pictures.

I do agree with some of the other reviews of this book, but I have my own spin on it. True, some of the photos are rather dark and yellowed, but they are still very discernible and well taken. There are several good sequential shots of aircraft ditching or crash landing that are worth a second look, such as the shots of a B-17 being ditched in the Gulf of Mexico in 1947. There are also several still images of the XB-70 Valkerie during it's infamous crash in 1966. True, some of these images can be found on various websites, but most cannot. It's also worth having all of these mishaps and accidents in one photo journal. The captions and text are well worded throughout. This is a great photo book for any aircraft historian or anyone in the aircraft design/maintanance industry. It helps to point out that, while these are beautiful and amazing machines, they are also very deadly and far from perfect.

landscape format, fascinating if rather dark images but next to no information on what is going on in the pictures...this could have been so much better..the pictures of the Cutless missing the carrier deck and ramming into the ship's beam in a ball of fire with ant-like figures silhouetted against the flames scurrying for some non-existant cover are horribly fascinating...as are the pictures of the Russian Tu -16 Badger that plunged into the sea near a US ship after flying a series of low level passes alongside it...why, where, what and how ..? surely the complier could have attempted more than the rather feeble answers here...

This book contains some really interesting photographs of some strange crashes and weird aviation experiments. Great for a buff who likes read about all the dangers and pitfalls of flying aircraft. This book is especially strong in the area of 1950s and 1960s military aircraft. Stuff you don't see everywhere else! It's a pretty cool gift for those who like airplanes!

Warning! There are no pictures in this book of snakes on a plane. There are lots of pictures of airplane wrecks that are caused by the snakes... but no pictures of the snakes themselves.