Making use of primary Curtiss documents, as well as the combined resources of the world's leading historians of the subject, the authors have skillfully resolved myths and woven a comprehensive study of the often very confusing story of these classic airplanes. Making use of previously unpublished documents and photographs, this massive, life-long work will stand as a legacy to the memory of those wonderful shapes, the men and women who built them, flew them and took them to war, and the lasting contributions they have made, collectively, to aviation history and the defense of democracy.

The Curtiss P-40 had a production run of 13,738 aircraft, making it the third most produced US fighter of WWII. Famous as the "shark-mouthed" aircraft of the legendary American Volunteer Group -- "Flying Tigers" -- the P-40 was first flown in 1938, and was used by the United States and many of its Allies throughout the war. This volume tells the story of this iconic aircraft -- from design and construction to combat use to detailed images of existing examplesthrough carefully researched photos, some of which have never before been published, and which are reproduced in remarkable clarity. These stunning photos, coupled with descriptive and informative captions, put the reader in the skies with this historic aircraft.

Thanks to this second volume, every single one of France's combat aircraft (fighters, bombers and recce aircraft) in the early years of W.W.II is now offered to the international audience, including the lesser known types. Each type is featured with an historical text, period photographs and color profiles.

When the Nazis started to threaten the world with their efficient machine of propaganda, the main concern of European governments was the overwhelming reaction of panic that the expected bombing of the Luftwaffe might cause within the civil population. During the Munich Agreement in 1938, the democracies were defended by old biplanes and a bunch of modern fighters: 50 Hurricanes, 20 Morane-405 and 5 Fokker D.XXI. France and Great Britain took up the production of USA airplanes and cancelled exports to small countries, which were forced to design and build their own PANIC FIGHTERS with the intelligence and skill that desperation provides. When nothing seemed able to contain the German advance, France, Great Britain and the USSR developed several programs of emergency fighters, as did Australia, to face the Japanese expansion. At the time the course of events switched, it was the Axis powers that had to create their own PANIC FIGHTERS, some of them suicidal. The present book includes several last resource designs of fighters that are practically unknown and that were developed in times of tribulation by Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Netherland, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.

The Lockheed P-38J Lightning aircraft was revolutionary, extremely innovative, thanks to double-girder fuselage, the two Allison V-engines with turbochargers within the tail beams and landing gear in tricycle. The Bell P-39 Airacobra was a single-engine fighter produced by the US to low-wing Bell Aircraft Corporation. It was the most controversial fighter aircraft used by the US during World War II. It was the first fighter in the world to have the engine installed in the middle of the fuselage, behind the pilot. The Bell P-63 Kingcobra was a single-engine low-wing fighter aircraft developed by the US Air Force Bell Aircraft Corporation in the early forties and used during World War II. Evolution of the previous P-39 Airacobra, launched in an attempt to correct the defects of that model, the United States Army Air Forces will never estimated suitable for combat, relegating him to the towing role for targets. As a result, nearly two-thirds of the production was assigned to the Soviet Union and about 300 units to units of Free France. The Curtiss P-40 was a single-seat single-engine monoplane US manufacturing in the first half of the forties was taken by the Allies as a fighter aircraft or fighter in many of the theaters in which you fought the Second World War. Produced by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company of Buffalo, New York, never was an aircraft with exceptional characteristics (mainly because of its engine, underpowered at high altitude); However, it was also made of a large number of specimens, and his great strength (coupled with its widespread availability since the early months of the entry into the war) made it one of the most important fighter for American aviation events in the first phase of World war II, between 1941 and the summer of 1943.

A fascinating account of a plane that served on both sides during World War 2 and in a variety of environments from Pearl Harbor to the deserts of North Africa to the barren forests of Karelia and the jungles of Burma. The Curtiss P-36 was considered a revolution in performance design in comparison to other US fighters. Yet by the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the P-40 was increasingly supplanting the P-36, which the US then exported to France under the guise of the Hawk 75. Flown by the French, captured by the Germans, sold to the Finns, transferred to India and Africa, and even incorporated into the RAF, the Hawk 75 saw service in every theatre of operations and in a variety of combat environments. This book depicts the interesting life of this plane, with colour artwork, photographs and first-hand accounts.

Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.