The Finest Single Reference Available On Naval Attack Aircraft.

An excellent history of USN Attack aircraft. The chapters start with the changing requirements during WWII and the BuAer missteps as they struggled to find the right mix of size and capability within the VB, VS, and VT communities along with the impact the changes in the VF community were having in gradually blending various capabilities into a single aircraft.
The history of the A-6, A-7, and F-18 were particularly spot on and unbiased. The history of the A-12 is probably as complete as it could be at the time of the writing. Having spun wrenches on the J52, J57, J79, TF30, TF41, and the F404 and interacted with a significant number of these aircraft on the flight line and the flight deck (A-4 onshore only, missed the RA-5 by one cruise.) I was pleased to catch a little bit more than what I was able read in the contemporary press or heard as various bits of rumor. The early nuclear operations get excellent coverage as well as the T40 derived failures. Pleasant surprises were the little tidbits on the seagoing Neptune and the Seaplane Striking Force. (Surprising considering they were "hook free".) I was a little surprised to see no reference to the "Lehman Wing" which was done with two A-6 squadrons (VA-75 and VA-85) and completely sans A-7 in 1983. Too bad the lessons were forgot in my opinion as the Navy has had no deep strike aircraft now for 20 years and NavAir has never recovered.
(As much as I disliked the F-18 from a mission standpoint, I loved having the F404 in my shop. Turnaround time was typically 25% of a TF30 or a J52 and you could do more to it as far as getting it back out the door instead of canning it up and sending it off the ship. That's great when you only own four rails and have to share space with the buddy stores. Turnaround time was such that I only had to work my crew more than 24 hours straight only twice in six months.)
Mr. Thomason is undoubtedly the doyen of technical and aircraft development writing about US Naval Aviation. (Apologies to Mr. Tillman.) If you're looking for squadron operational histories you'll probably be a little disappointed.
If you want a chronological history of the technical development and overlapping histories of post war naval attack aircraft this is a great purchase. ( )

On the whole a very good survey of the topic in question where the only liability is that with ten years under the bridge it's starting to become a little dated; though considering the stagnation of U.S. airframe development not as much as one might think. The F-35 is really just a blip in this history. Points also to the author for covering drones in his book as far back as World War II. ( )

An excellent companion to [U.S. Naval Air Superiority: Delevelopment of Shipborne Jet Fighters - 1943-1962], but this time the author takes the story up to 21st century. The main focus is on the development and acquisition of the various planes, service history is deal with rather summarily. It has interesting sections on the use of attack drones in WWII, and the development of attack seaplanes.

One of the most striking aspects of this book is the important role nuclear delivery played in shaping the attack planes of the 50s. The main task seems to have been nuclear attack, and if the resulting plane also could do something else, so much the better. This only changed after Polaris. Another thing the author stresses is that Air Force led plane developments usually don't work, and lead to questionable results at best.

A must if you're interested in naval aviation. ( )