The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft: 1914 To the Present

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Summary: The Ultimate Military Aviation Reference
Review: A must for aviation enthusiasts. I've got several dated editions of Angellucci's aviation reference books. I think no aviation enthusiast should be without a copy of this most excellent reference book. The color pictures come to life, and it is packed with relavent statistics, data, and pull-charts which are teeming with information. The only criticism I have is that after glancing through this most recent edition in a book store... it doesn't seem to have any new aircraft. The Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor come to mind.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't Get Much Better
Review: If you're looking for a book about military aircraft, they don't get much better than this. Starting with old Wright and Bleriot airplanes and proceeding to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some people may complain about the lack of some more modern planes, like the F-22, but this book is a few years old. Overall, it's great.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Resource!
Review: This book is a great resource for aviation enthusiasts. It contains some information on virtually every production combat aircraft between 1914 to today. Invaluable are the 3-view drawings of the relevant aircraft. It also contains many charts and graphs explaining a variety of topics, such as aircraft production in relevant countries involved in the many wars where air power has been used, comparison of maximum altitude, comparison of maximum range, etc. This book does not give detailed specifications of each aircraft, but a generalized description within a paragraph ordered around date of operation or design, parent country, and type of aircraft. Many color pictorials of insignia and camouflage (again very generalized, mostly only the prominent insignia and camouflage schemes). I recommend it, especially for the aviation modeler (either plastic or computer modeler)!

Rating:
Summary: A worthy culmination
Review: This book should be considered as the worthy culmination of the previous efforts and publications of its authors, spanning 2-3 decades. Although aircraft that many would consider as key have been omitted, the authors admit to this in the foreword and give their reasons, which I think are quite valid. Inspite of this characteristic, this book takes its place among the standard reference volumes for its category.