Steve GinterRecensioni

A Bit of Disappointment After the Latest AF Legends Books.
Taken as an accumulation of photographs with solid captioning this an excellent monograph and certainly worth the money if you’re detailing one of the two models available. And as mentioned the captioning is solid. (Except for a minor glitch on page 12. The order given on the lower row is reversed.) Overall, for some reason I disappointed by the amount of text that was available. To be fair, the text that is present while sparse is reasonably informative. But you get let down by its paucity. For example, the issue with nacelles gets a short paragraph with no discussions about attempts to rectify it. Considering Stan Piet from the Martin Museum Archives is listed as a contributor, that’s somewhat surprising.
As casual observation, it was interesting to see how fast Martin made initial progress, from contract acceptance on the 29th of December while the Battle of the Bulge was being fought to the start of mock-up inspection on April 19th little more than two weeks before VE day was impressive, even by the standards of the day.
While one can sing high praises of the monograph as a modeling reference and viewed as akin to a walkaround volume this is a solid if somewhat overpriced purchase. As a history of the aircraft? It’s a bit disappointing when stacked up against other AF Legends offerings.
Strongly Recommended for modelers, non-modelers approach with caution.

This review is based upon using NF3 on the FH-1 as a baseline comparison. To start NF3 was published 41 years before this volume NF115 hit the streets. Since then, more models have become available and the author has refined the layout of the series. This volume right off the bat has doubled in size, and print quality.
The new volume includes unit histories, far more photographs, and better illustrations. For example? The J30 goes from a single rather dismal drawing to three photographs, a brief history and a photo of a 9.5” diameter jet engine that was its immediate ancestor. Last but not least? There’s a bunch more text on the history of the aircraft and its systems.
This book also has a quality all its own, because quite frankly its literally the only reference out there.

Recommended for modelers and those with an interested in early USN jet aviation.

Overall, the Air Force Legends monographs have been pretty good. But, in this case? While the modeler maybe well served anyone with an interest in the development, construction, might be left feeling a little disappointed. Interestingly enough the contributors included Peter Bowers and William Larkins along with a contribution by the AAHS. Which means there may just be a paucity of information available to flesh out a monograph to the same standards as the other AF Legends monographs. There are enough interior and exterior photographs to provide details for modelers along with details of the models that have been available over the years.
The photos are of sufficient depth and detail where one can see that the aircraft’s cockpit wobble pump was placarded as “Wabble Pump”
Those interested in the development of the aircraft would probably be best served by seeking out the old Sentry magazines Wings and Airpower for the articles that were written in the early ‘70’s.
Only recommended for modelers.

The XF7F-1 (Grumman G-45) was ordered on June 30, 1941, and was intended to be operated from the forthcoming 45,000 ton Midway class carriers. It was to be the first twin engine with tricycle undercarriage. It was heavily armed with four-20 mm guns in the wing roots and four 50 cal in the nose with strong point under the wings and fuselage to carry bombs and the Navy torpedo.
This book covers all of the many versions along with its use as a firebomber, and some aircraft that are saved in the museum.

Kinda' a "phone it in effort". And this is not to damn the book either. It's coverage of the Marine F-8 squadrons up until the late '60's is in black and white and of little use to a modeler. The only color is on the outside covers. The unit histories appear fleshed out a bit more than Wikipedia, but the overall availability of the internet since the original publication in 1989 have pretty much rendered this book superfluous.

Badly In Need Of An Updated Revision.

Published in 1987 this volume neatly slices the complete USN service life of the T-2 Buckeye in half. It's missing everything from 1987 up through retirement from the VT Squadrons as part of the NFO training pipeline in 2008 until it’s final retirement from the USN from the Naval Test pilots School in 2015. (A chapter on civilian warbird Buckeyes would be interesting as well.

About 1/3 of the monograph is dedicated to technical development of the aircraft along with the typical Ginter treatment of technical details that will be of interest to modelers or the technically minded. Regrettably with this volume, close ups of the landing gear, wheel wells and speed brake areas are noticeably absent. With the newer kits available in 1/48 scale this is now a serious omission.

A couple of nice surprises were coverage of the tactical use of the aircraft, the supercritical wing contract and the inclusion of stall and spin characteristics on the VF-126 unit page.

Not recommended for modelers and only moderately recommended for anyone interested in the T-2, or USN VT Squadrons of the era.

A Nice Modelers Reference and Introduction to the Naval T-33.
Pretty standard fare for an early Naval Fighters monograph. Fourteen pages are devoted to development and even those pages are predominantly taken up by photographs. There is some coverage of the changes needed to make the T2V carrier compatible, if you’re looking for some meat on the development of the aircraft for the Navy, you’ll just have to make do with a few bones. The rest of the volume are some technical details lifted from various NavAir manuals followed by unit histories.
With a production run of 150 aircraft this is not a mainstream USN aircraft and this volume will only be of limited interest to the most die-hard fan of naval aircraft. (Consider the youngest pilots that flew them are around 80 years old.) One interesting aspect of this volume is even with later photo’s taken as late as 11/69 there is not a single “modern” aircraft in the photo’. Plenty of S-2’s, A-1’s, F8’s, etc., but nothing like a C-130 or F-4 in the background of any photograph.
Assuming another model of the Seastar is produced this book remains an excellent modelers reference. Recommended for anyone with an interest in obscure USN Aircraft, US Navy VT Squadrons, Unit and base hacks and as mentioned earlier for modelers.

Pretty standard NF layout and pedestrian coverage of the Banshee. But, it's about all there is out there right now. Being a Naval Fighters volume this is a great book for modelers.

Great Coverage of a Little Known Aircraft

Mr. Ginter goes a bit further afield as he publishes these monographs on lesser known Naval Aircraft. (It might time to rethink the "Naval Fighters" title for his publications on USN/USMC aircraft.)
The volume starts out with the S-43's predecessors, exports, and civilian operators (33 pages). Although it's somewhat abbreviated it's more than adequate as it also includes a few photographs of interior shots, cutaways and construction. The rest of the volume (68 pages) pretty much follow the standard Naval Fighters formula with the exception of reproducing technical drawing from manuals. Squadron histories, in-service photographs and coverage of the available models. Postwar coverage of the survivors is also covered. One particular item of note is some of the archival photos are reproduced with a staggering level of clarity and detail.
I gave the volume a 4 star rating not because it's flawed, I'm glad I purchased it and it's a welcome addition to my library. It just didn't float my boat.
This is another excellent Ginter publication and I highly recommend it for those with an interest in the golden age of flying boats, airlines of the era, early WWII flying boats etc.

A historical, technical and political overview of the XB-46.

A first glance the volume may seem a little thin at 65 pages.
The high-points:
Quality of the photographs is outstanding
Better technical descriptions and aircraft history and development than is the norm for a smaller Ginter publication (Although will still be slim for some.)
Inclusion of a portion of the production log
Coverage of running changes and proposed variants
Summary:
There is enough meat on these 65 pages to provide a decent historical, technical and political overview of the XB-46 and where it really fit in the context of the B-45 and B-47 procurement. (Readers should note the changes in specifications and pay particular attention to the issue dates to put this aircraft into chronological and technical context with the B-47.)
Since there are no models of this aircraft to speak of, the purchasers of this monograph are going be mostly likely primarily interested in the historical and technical aspects of the XB-46 and I don't believe they will be let down by this volume overall.

This monograph is as good as anything done by Wings or Airpower in their prime. And, at this price a great example why mass publication of history oriented aviation magazines for the technically curious reader has ended.

Good general volume on the Goose

Like most other NF books, illustrations triumph over text. Within the scope of the book, there is a fair amount of brief descriptions of the history of the aircraft. Pre-war use is fairly good for the amount of text dedicated to the book. This volume is 72 pages. To get a better history of the aircraft you would probably need to spend about 5 times as much and buy the Air Britain book on the Goose. Even then the illustrations aren't as good.

A nice monograph providing basic coverage of a now obscure aircraft. I was surprised to see how much use the aircraft actually saw. Would liked to have seen more on the use by the British.

Oldie but goodie

This one of the first products by Mr. Ginter. As always it fills in a lot of gaps, and since there are not alot of T-28 books out there, this is probably the best thing going. Just remember this book is almost 30 years old. (Now that I think about it, the navy was still flying the T-28 when this book was published.)

Not quite complete. Needs more on the history of WF-2/E-1B. Like other Ginter pubs the squadron histories are adequate. I hope others will find the volume adequate.

Very pleased with the book overall. As a recent Naval Fighters publication this volume falls a little short compared to amount of text in volumes like the ones on the Buffalo and F4H-1. That's not to say it isn't excellent.
Following the usual Naval Fighters format there are sections devoted to development, users and models. Because of the size of the book at 250 pages, this is a massive volume for the NF series and as result there are 15 pages of a color walk-around along with numerous drawings and a few of the unit histories are more fleshed out than is the norm within the series.
There is extensive the coverage of the Marines with VSMB-241 prior to and at Midway, coverage of the French use is probably is as good as can be expected at this date, while coverage of the use by the British is somewhat perfunctory.
Coverage of the training units is excellent and provides photos of the Sable and Wolverine.
The only reason this gets four stars is due to the lack of text compared to contemporary NF volumes and my desire for more text. If you're interested in naval aviation this book deserves a place on your shelf.
Overall, taken in context with the traditional NF series?
Unreservedly recommended for anyone interested in the US Navy aircraft, early WWII history and modelers.

Workman like and of specialized interest, this edition of Naval Fighters (NF) will only appeal to a very limited group. The modelers section and US Navy reserve squadron coverage were deferred to a later volume covering USMC Skyhawks. The volume at 177 pages was a large edition for Naval Fighters in 2001 and provides a sparse 6 pages of text plus two pages of performance charts on the last two pages. The technical illustrations and photo gallery run about another 45 pages or so and do provide some meaningful details of the aircraft that might be of some use to modelers.

Except for maintenance personnel, pilots or die-hard Scooter fans, it's hard to think of who else this volume might appeal to.

This is mostly a typical Naval Fighters product with some text devoted to development and the majority to short paragraphs devoted to in-service use. There is a significant amount of space devoted to reproducing some archival maintenance manuals, etc.
This volume however has 35 pages(!) devoted to development, with a few paper proposals and a fair amount of text by Mr. Meyer who was factory pilot. This is very unusual for a NF product and very welcome!
Given the costs of the these volumes has reached hardcover prices, this book represents a pretty decent value. Highly recommended.

Normally I don't complain about the size of the AF Legends at their various price points. In this case I suspect Mr. Ginter might be well served to consider a revised edition completed by a specialist author on the USAF of this era.(Calling Mr. Pace!) I would have liked to have seen a bit more about the other issues of the time as well.While the common deficiencies of the turbojet are listed in the text, a direct comparison the F-86 in terms of performance and range certainly opened my eyes to why this concept was being pursued. The envelope is almost identical except for range is much greater for XF-84H.
This monograph opened more questions and then left me wanting for more. For example it states the switch over to the single propeller shaft was done before the aircraft were built. The picture of the prop tach shows a needle marked "1". This is typical of a dual tach set-up. Why have that when you're only driving a single shaft propeller? Other questions arise such as why did the RH wing have an additional fuel cell with an extra 10 gallons compared the the LH wing? Another missing tidbit was why BuAer insisted on an afterburner.
The book follows the usual Legends format with a little pre-history, design, usage then the available models. As usual with the series there is an abundance of detail photographs. A nice surprise was a one page description of the XF-88B. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in early jet fighters or USAF experimental programs,

Overlooked aircraft

Similar to other monographs in Naval Fighters, well illustrated.
This aircraft is further proof Curtis tried too hard to stick to the customer specs. The depth of coverage is constrained by the fact that this is not a book, it is a monograph.

Now a relatively unknown aircraft, the authors do a good job with describing the aircraft and researching the service histories of individual aircraft. For modelers, or those with a technical interest there are plenty of illustrations of components, cabin and cockpit layouts, etc. Not to denigrate the book, but it is one of those volumes where the airplanes in the background of the photographs maybe more interesting than the subject.
Although this review will probably be considered critical, recommended for modelers and anyone interested in DC-3/C-47/Douglas history.

If you want to be critical, you can discount this book on a lack of depth. However, for the overall length of the typical Legends or Navy monographs you would be hard pressed to find anything better. For a short format, This is as good as anything produced for Wings or Airpower magazines during their prime. Recommended.

Simi Valley, CA