Dominique Breffort

Designed just before World War II after special instructions from the American tycoon Howard Hughes, the Lockheed Constellation is celebrated today as one of the finest flying machines ever built. As a civilian aircraft, it has been the first airliner able to cross the Atlantic Ocean non stop, but it also has had a respectable military career, thanks to its brilliant characteristics which allowed it to fulfill missions of electronic warfare and AWACS…it had four R-3350 engines on it giving it more power than any Douglas aircraft but the lower powered R-2800 on the DC-6 made it a far more reliable airplane than the constellation.… (más)

As the title indicates, this volume covers fighters, bombers, reconnaissance and observation types of aircraft of the Armee de l'Air (French air force). It does not cover transports nor trainers. It does not cover the Aeronavale (French naval aircraft). It is a paperback (DANG!). It is mostly in English and there is no data after 1942 ('dissolution of the aviation of the Vichy regime'). It has good photographs with text and colored aircraft profiles and squadron insignia (?). From the back cover 'This book, which is actually the reissue, very substantially increased, of volumes 7 and 8 of the Planes & Pilots serie (sic) ...'. The contents are as follows:
-- Foreword
-- Brief history (very brief)
-- The development of camouflage and markings 1939-1942
-- Pages 8 through 14 are in French. They seem to cover squadron markings (?), etal. The bottom half of page 12 addresses the organization of French fighters at the time of the declaration of war, but unfortunately is only in French..
-- A one page map of northeastern France (Metropolitan France?) of fighter, reconnaissance and observation groups.
-- Then there are 137 pages of aircraft data by manufacturer containing:
-- -- Text
-- -- Technical specifications
-- -- Many good photographs
-- -- Usually a lot of good profiles
-- 7 pages on minor aircraft ('Those that never were'), with small photographs and some small 3 view line drawings
-- 1/2 page of abbreviations and glossary, with suffixes

Pros:
Loire & Olivier LeO C.30 (autogiro)
Loire & Olivier LeO H 257bis (floatplane)
SNCASE SE 100
Caproni Ca 313
Glenn Martin GM 167F
Sidebar on the different versions of the Potez 63 versions (I can live with the typos)
The top left of most left hand pages has data as to the contents (i.e., 'Bloch MB 152')

Cons:
It should be hardcover!
Pages 8-14 should be translated into English
There is no Table of Contents, no Index and no Bibliography
Too few line drawings (none for the primary aircraft!)
For the minor aircraft, the photographs and the line drawings should be bigger
The profiles are only from the side, some tops and bottoms (for the wings especially) are needed
The Foreword should have been rewritten, it appears to have been from volume 7 ('... two new volumes ...', '... the following companion volume ...' and '... at the end of each volume ...')
For the Bloch MB 174, the profiles show three nose windows and the photographs show four?
Several typos (line 1 'modified, glazed f', line 2 'ront fuselage', from the Potez 63 versions sidebar)… (más)