The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875-1995 (1855324059)

The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875-1995 (1855324059)

This huge work constitutes Bill Gunston's 330th Book. Commenting on its content, the author states 'It has taken more blood, sweat and tears than any 20 ordinary books. For one thing, at least half of what we thought we knew about Russian aircraft has turned out to be wrong'. At last, this exhaustive compilation can be put before the public with confidence that it documents the true histories of some 1000 types of aircraft. At last, the 'red herrings' and spurious details invented (mostly in the two decades between 1950 and 1970 by people in the West) have been swept away and replaced by the facts. It can confidently be claimed that no book in the history of aviation has ever contained anything like as much new information. The author thought his task would be greatly eased by the fact that in 1983 he had written the then definitive work on the subject, entitled Aircraft of the Soviet Union. This was the 'bible' on the subject for many years, but when it came to compiling this new work, Gunston had to check over every word because so much of what was thought to be fact has turned out to be wrong in varying degrees. Moreover, as there is no longer a Soviet Union the title of the completed work had to change. This in turn meant that the starting point had to go back from 1918 to 1875! The main text is prefaced by sections on aircraft designations, engines, air-launched weapons, avionics and many other topics including Western reporting names. At the end of the book is a section on Ekranoplans, which the West often call by the clumsy title 'wing-in-ground-effect vehicles'. Some of these are veritable flying ships, with awesome size and performance, and many are products of aircraft design teams. This section itself could have formed a complete book, and much of the information included here has not previously been published. It needed the proverbial 'shoehorn' to get it all in between one pair of covers.

Published by Osprey Publishing 1995 - author: Bill Gunston - hard cover - 560 pages - condition: new