Gordon Swanborough

For many years, William Green and Gordon Swanborough formed a writing team that produced voluminous, detailed, factual writing about aircraft. Their material was ubiquitous and comprehensive. This volume is from a series called "World War 2 Aircraft Fact Files" produced by Macdonald & Janes in the 1970s. It details all the significant - and some of the more obscure - aircraft of the day, as prescribed by the title. This volume covers the products of the Bell and Curtiss companies. There are detailed development and production histories, and a slightly broader account of each type's service record.

Before Wikipedia, this book and many others like it were the go-to source for any historical information on warplanes of the era. Colour is restricted to a two-page spread of representative profiles, but there are plenty of acceptable photographs and a number of three-views and some detailed cutaways. This book and its shelf-mates are never going to be classics of aviation literature - indeed, they do make rather dry reading - but they are comprehensive and worth acquiring if you ever see any.… (más)