Customer Reviews

Sukhoi Su-27 (Famous Russian Aircraft)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As with the other titles in this series, this is a first-rate edition on one Russia's latest and best combat aircraft, the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker,in all its versions. It covers its history from conception through development and deployment. It tells of the people involved and covers everything an enthusiast might want to know with great attention to the engineering and details. The story is told in idiomatic English.

The color photography is excellent and comprehensive and the extensive color artwork is very high quality and illustrates virtually every version and color scheme that has adorned the aircraft in all the air arms it serves with. The line art is superb as well. This is an excellent offering in all respects, which I highly recommend, and offered by Amazon at a bargain price, too.

First Impression

I have been anxiously waiting for the delivery of this book and honestly, I was not disappointed at all. This book is heavy, hardcover with dust-jacket, 592 pages (glossy paper) in total. It is filled with countless number of pictures (most colour), colour profiles and line drawing of all types of SU-27 and variants.

I owned a copy of Yefim's earlier book (1999) "Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker - Air Superiority Fighter" published by Airlife. I thought that one was already a great book and gave it 5 stars. With this new book in front of me, I could only say that the earlier one was some sort of an "Executive Summary" only. All the pictures, colour profiles and line drawings in this book are of the highest quality and I would have no hesitation in giving it 10 stars!!

The Book

A brief description of the 12 parts of this book:-
(1) A Fighter Is Born - Design and concept (27 pages)
(2) The Recipe For A Better Fighter - Prototypes and testing (46 pages)
(3) The Family Starts Growing - Production and deployment (42 pages)
(4) Enter A New Generation - Su-27 variants (56 pages)
(5) Ship Ahoy! - Russian Navy Su-27 (70 pages)
(6) The Su-30 Family - (44 pages)
(7) Big Head Flanker - Su-34 in detail (30 pages)
(8) Flankers In Service - (32 pages)
(9) Show Business - Aerobatics (32 pages)
(10) The Flanker In Detail - Close-up photos and line drawings (128 pages)
(11) The Su-27 vs The Competition - (24 pages)
(12) Flankers Far And Wide - Flankers in foreign services (48 pages)

I do not think there will be a better book on Su-27 in the market for some years unless Yefim decides to do a revision in a few years time. All Russian military enthusiasts should not miss this one. This is still a bargain at this price.

A superb monograph of a superb aircraft family. Sadly, this book is becoming hard to find at a reasonable price.

This book is 600 pages of almost everything that is publicly available about the Su-27 family of aircraft. This includes not only the Su-27 proper but the various Su-30, Su-33, Su-34, Su-35, and Su-37 models and others too numerous to mention. In addition to the usual highly readable text there are plenty of photographs (almost all in color), line drawings, graphs, and tables.

In short this is a fantastic book with equally fantastic production values. The only thing I can fault is the very substandard cutaway drawing. It reproduced poorly and is marred and obscured by overly large numbers calling out the various features.

Other than that one could have wished for:

1.) An index. A necessity for a volume this size. If it was too much to place in the book itself an online index would have been nice.
2.) A glossary and list of acronyms.
3.) Maps, maps, maps. For a book aimed primarily at a non Russian audience this is really a serious shortcoming.

But don't misunderstand the nits I picked above. This is a five star book. If you have any interest in Soviet/Russian aircraft, pick it up if you can find it for a sane price or hope a 2nd edition is in the works. Much the same can be said for the other "Famous Russian Aircraft" titles.

Excellent book on a very interesting aircraft. Text and photos are excellent. If you like researching Soviet aircraft, you will like this book. The text covers the complete history and development of this fighter and offers a comparison with Western counter-parts.

This is an excellent book with a vast number of full colour photos and drawings. One of the best aviation books I have purchased and great value for money.

This is a fantastic book about the Su-27; Do not let the fact that the author had written another book of the same subject (Su-27 ) discourage you from buying this. This is a brand new book- not a re-hash of the old book. Lots more pictures and information and naturally more up to date. I own both and I would say this covers more than the earlier book but is more detailed and more research orientated- nuts and bolts stuff. The earlier book is more orientated for general reading. Best advice? Buy both!