Warbirds Alive: The World's Top 25 Flyable Historic Military Aircraft [Paperback]

Paul Coggan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2004

This title takes a serious look at several aspects of warbirds consistently voted 'Top' by visitors to a vintage aviation website. Each aircraft is thoroughly covered, including:

1. A condensed civil and military history of each of the 25 airframes being covered as sidebars.
b. Statistics on the survivors - how many exist, how many are flyable, etc. to put rarity of each type covered into perspective.
c. Extensive color photographic coverage of the aircraft, internal and external, including restoration photographs and air-to-air where possible.
d. Interviews with the restorers based on a set of basic questions so the readers can judge for themselves how complex each restoration was and compare each project. This will include details of how the airframe and engines were restored (in layman's terms) and how difficult it was to undertake particular facets of the restoration process, source parts, research paint schemes etc.
e. Where the aircraft is on public view and details of location.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Midland Pub Ltd (June 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857801431
• ISBN-13: 978-1857801439
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book, March 8, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Warbirds Alive: The World's Top 25 Flyable Historic Military Aircraft (Paperback)

In various museums you can see a wide collection of old airplanes. The Smithsonian, Wright-Patterson, and Pima museums in the US, the RAF Museum in Herndon and others have great collections of planes. But these are not flyable.

Here is a detailed photographic record of 25 flying aircraft along with the story of where they were found, how they were restored, etc. The photographs are professional in quality and the printing is beautiful.

Surprising to me was the number of very rare aircraft that have been restored. P-51D's you'd expect; but a Goodyear F2G-1 Super Corsair, a P-40C returned from Russia (where it crashed in 1944).

One of those books you don't want to put down.

4.0 out of 5 stars A revealing look behind the curtain of warbird OZ, July 24, 2006

By 

W. Amend (Yorba Linda, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Warbirds Alive: The World's Top 25 Flyable Historic Military Aircraft (Paperback)

Many people who see a restored warbird have little idea of the efforts required to make it presentable (let alone flyable). As a volunteer at one of the facilities that is home to a few of the featured aircraft I feel that the book provides an accurate glimpse into the process of recovery, restoration, and operation of some of the most recognizable warbirds. In addition, the reader is introduced to some of the dominant personalities and organizations involved with the warbird community. Most, but not all, of the 25 featured aircraft chapters include photos of the recovery and restoration process. I would have liked more illustrations of the restoration process in some of the chapters. A summary table for each aircraft describing the specifications and performance would have been a nice addition, as well. The introductory chapter has photos and descriptions of many miscellaneous warbirds in various states of repair, but some of the captions appear incomplete or misleading. For example, a plane described as "an oddly colored P-38..." could have been more accurately described as the red color scheme replicating "Yippee", the 5000th P-38 that rolled off the assembly line. Overall though, the book is a worthwhile addition to a personal library.