David Mondey (1917–2015)

If you are looking for a book which provides a wealthy store of technical data on a wide array of aircraft from the Axis countries of Word War Two, this may be the book for you. Over a hundred aircraft are described in impressive detail, including detailed production histories of all the variants of each type. For me, the greatest value in Mondey's book is the ample supply of pictures, both black and white photographs and colour illustrations.
On the other hand, I found the lack of show more operational history disappointing. If Mondey would have devoted more time discussing the impact each machine made upon the airwar, how they fared against Allied opposition, something of the men who flew the planes, this book would have been a far more interesting read. In too many cases, Mondey said either very little or absolutely nothing of this part of the aircraft's record. Still, for it's strengths, I am pleased to have it in my collection. show less

As the book says, it's a concise guide, covering all British aircraft. Actually, all British manufactured aircraft, there are not American planes in British service such as the Maryland, the Grumman fighters, or other such aircraft. All aircraft have a nice development and operational history, with some specific data relating to performance and armament. About three-quarters of the entries have at least one side view color illustration. I docked the book a half point for not having such a show more view for each plane. About one fifth of these also have a three view color illustration which is nice. Not the definitive illustrated guide to British Aircraft, but concise--and cheap, also a virtue. show less

The Complete Book of Aircraft & Flight is a 1980 history of flight…has relatively few photos to illustrate the contents at around 130. This is because most of the illustrations are ink drawings of aircraft or three-view plan views of aircraft. Some of the ink drawings have serious errors, as do the plan views, it seems to be a serious error to rely on these for most of illustrations in place of additional photos. The text, by several contributors, varies with the result that the book is show more flawed yet at times quite informative show less

Focusing in particular upon Germany, Japan and Italy, this guide shows the design and firepower of fighter bombers during World War II. It describes the aircraft, their pilots and their bombing missions in detail, and the construction of each country's air forces and fighting strategies.
Laid out in strict alphabetical order by make, each aircraft commences with a text headed "History and Notes" in which all the relevant history is covered and the numerous variations of different aircraft show more explained. To this is added plans and the occasional photograph. Most interestingly, instead of treating the reader to an artist's impression of a single profile example, we get several different profiles of each aircraft showing their numerous variations and livery. In the case of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, for example, there are 10 such profiles. show less