Fighters: The World ?s Great Aces and their Planes spans the globe to trace the colorful history of American, British, French, German, Japanese, and Soviet fighter planes and their pilots ? men of skill and courage who know, in the words of writer Edwards Park, how to ?toggle the reckless switch. ? Through archival photographs and contemporary images by some of the world ?s top aviation photographers, FIGHTERS takes us from Sopwith Camels to F/A-18 Hornets, from the blur of propeller blats to what Park calls ?the hot blue pencil of jet thrust. ? Here are the aces of World War I, who first turned biplanes into deadly weapons; the innovators of the years between the wars, who strove to fly faster, farther, and higher; the pilots of World War II, who proved that air superiority was vital to victory and the jet jockeys of today , who fly by wire at twice the speed of sound. Its comprehensive treatment of World War I planes photographed aerially and in color makes FIGHTERS unique. Equally unusual are its detailed survey of the 1940ws Soviet air effort and the sheer emotional impact of its illustrations. This unparalleled collection includes eloquent portraits of such aviation greats as Albert Ball, Billy Bishop, and Manfred von Richthofen, informal studies of pilots loafing beneath a gallery of pinup beauties or sprinting to their planes across a muddy tropical airstrip, breathtaking shots of a Fokker triplane flying over a mist-filled forest at dawn, and an F-14 piercing the sky above massive cloud banks. Spads and Albatroses, Hurricanes and Messerschmitts, Airacobras, and Zeroes ? FIGHTERS features these aircraft and more in 79 black-and-white and 173 full-color images. An entertaining and highly informative text accompanies the photographs. Enriched by the author ?s own experiences as a pilot in the Second World War, it tells the story of fighters from the days before World War I when, as Park notes, ?aviators of all nations were universally foolhardy ? and a handful tried in vain to shoot each other from the sky with pistols, to the present, when pilots fly ?F-a6s and MiG-23s and other craft belonging as much to space as to air. ? Among Park ?s many fascinating anecdotes is one about George Guynemer, a gallant ace who vanished in a World War I dogfight. The pilot lives on in the lore of French children who say he flew so high that he couldn ?t return and is still up there somewhere, flying. FIGHTERS captures the greatness that spawns such legends, the indomitable spirit of an elite fraternity as unforgettable as the planes they fly. - Dust jacket.