ULTIMATE POWER: The History of Military Aircraft

Including panoramic gatefolds, this sumptuously illustrated book sweeps through a century of military aviation covering the milestones and key technological developments. It features the designs and manufacturers who produced the early biplanes, helicopters, VTOL and swing-wing aircraft, heavy bombers, giant transporters and stealth intruders. These machines played their part in two global wars, the Cold War and numerous other conflicts, and their stories thus offer a fascinating window on world history as well as relating how military minds sought to gain mastery of the skies. Pilots who took to the air on scouting missions began taking pot shots at each other. Bombs were dropped from the cockpit. From these rudimentary beginnings, the twin branches of military aviation were born - the fighter and the bomber. It was a division that presented designers with different problems. Fighters needed to be fast and agile, but for the bomber, payload capacity was vital. As sleek, metal monoplanes with more powerful engines replaced their wooden-framed predecessors, fighters were also able to carry a useful bomb load. With the arrival of jet propulsion, swept wings and guided missiles, fighter-bombers such as McDonnell's F-4 Phantom became the forerunner to the modern multi-role combat aircraft. By the 1980s, radar-defending stealth was the buzzword, shown off in Lockheed's Nighthawk Fighter and Northrop's B-2 Spirit Bomber. The F-22 Raptor added super cruise to the mix, but the future may lie in unmanned drones, examples of which are already equipped as weapons-delivery platforms. With spectacular colour photography, many in close up of the Westland Lynx iconic helicopter, the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, the Avro Lancaster, the B-52 Mitchell, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the SR-71 Blackbird, Lockheed's C-5 Galaxy and as we reach the centre pages a spectacular triple gatefold, a skyborne F-15E Eagle flying over Nevada and on the reverse the cockpit and wings in very close up of the F-37C Lightning II with its reinforced landing gear. Gloriously illustrated and huge in size, 192 pages of stunning photographs and excellent extended captions, text, fact boxes and full specifications.
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