Scale plans in 1/72, 1/48 scale of Supermarine Walrus12 A3 size pages in A4 pb. All subversions are shown.

The classic, revised story of how an elite group of US Air Force pilots fought a secret air war over Vietnam in Cessna 0-2 and OV-10 Bronco prop planes―flying as low as they could get. The eyes and ears of the fast-moving jets who rained death and destruction down on enemy positions, the Forward Air Controller made an art form out of an air strike―knowing the targets, knowing where friendly troops were, and reacting with split-second, life and death decisions as a battle unfolded. The expertise of the low, slow FACs, as well as the hazards attendant to their role, made for a unique bird’s-eye perspective on how the entire war in Vietnam unfolded. For Tom Yarborough, who logged 1,500 hours of combat flying time, the risk was constant, intense and electrifying. A member of the super-secret “Prairie Fire” unit, Yarborough became one of the most frequently shot-up pilots flying out of Da Nang―engaging in a series of dangerous secret missions in Laos. In this work, the reader flies in the cockpit alongside Yarborough in his adrenaline-pumping chronicle of heroism, danger and wartime brotherhood. From the rescuing of downed pilots to taking out enemy positions, to the most harrowing extended missions directly overhead of the NVA, here is the dedication, courage and skill of the fliers who took the war into the enemy's backyard.

The remarkable memoir of a U.S. fighter pilot, who after his escapades of shooting down German aircraft in France began an even greater adventure after being shot down himself. Ted Fahrenwald was a 22-year-old daredevil pilot in the famed 352nd Fighter Group when he bailed out of his burning P-51 Mustang two days after D-Day on his 100th mission. Parachuting into the farmlands of Normandy, he was immediately picked up by the local maquis, the guerrilla branch of the French Resistance. His rudimentary French, wily and gregarious personality, and backwoods skills allowed him to quickly make fast friends of these unruly outlaws, and he spent the next several months carousing and raiding with their band. But, determined to rejoin his squadron, Ted left his new comrades to hike through the fields and forests of the most heavily occupied areas of northern France toward the Channel coast, and the advancing Allied liberation armies. Captured by the Wehrmacht, however, interrogated as a spy, and interned in a POW camp, the author made a daring escape just before his deportation to Germany. Nothing diminished Ted's talent for spotting the ironic humor in even the most aggravating or dangerous situations, nor his penchant for extracting his own improvised and sometimes hilarious version of justice. The author recorded his swashbuckling adventures at age 24, after his discharge and return to the States. Afterward he went into business and never again put pen to paper. But his immediate reminiscence of his wartime experience reveal a literary talent that is rare. At once a suspenseful page-turner and an outrageously witty tale of daring and friendship, this book brings to life the daily intrigues of the combatants of World War II.

Curtiss P-40, known to Americans as Warhawk, and to their allies of the British Commonwealth as Tomahawk and Kittyhawk, fought on nearly all fronts of the Second World War, serving with the American, British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Canadian, Free French, Chinese, Dutch and Soviet air forces. The American Warhawks were part of as many as nine US Army Air Forces stationed overseas: the 5th (Australia, New Guinea, Philippines); the 6th (Central America); the 7th (central Pacific); the 9th (Middle East, North Africa), the 10th (India, Burma), the 11th (Alaska, Aleutians), the 12th (North Africa, Italy); the 13th (the Solomons); and the 14th (China). During the first years of the war the P-40 helped the Allies stem the offensive of the Axis powers and fight them back at the last-ditch defensive positions, like Kunming in China, Port Moresby on New Guinea, Darwin in Australia or El Alamein in Egypt. Never a high-performance fighter, it nonetheless proved a potent weapon in capable hands. Often turned into a fighter-bomber in later years, it soldiered on until phased out in favor of more advanced designs.

Douglas SBD Dauntless is one of the most popular American naval bomber of World War II era. The name Dauntless fits well to the aircraft’s “personality”. SBD was build with the aim of dive bombing which quickly were nicknamed as “helldiving”. Interestingly one of the successors of Dauntless – Curtiss SB2C – was officially named “Helldiver”. SBD was a two-seated light bomber and scout aircraft developed in year 1940 and based on Northrop BT-1 airframe. During the next year many improvements were added, such as: self-sealing fuel tanks, stronger armament and better electric installation. The most characteristic element were the airbrakes. They were mounted through almost full length of the bottom wing and halves of upper part of wings. Therefore the braking system was very effective stabilizing the dive, easing the aiming and getting plane from the steep dive. The plane became fully capable war machine. The most popular version was SBD-5 with 1200 HP Wright R-1820-60 radial engine. Almost 3000 SBD-5 were produced. The plane took part in many important battles over the Pacific but definitely the most significant were Battle for Midway and over the Guadalcanal. Dauntless’ were solid and reliable planes and crews really liked them. They quickly gave it a special nickname made from letters SBD – “Slow but Deadly”. Today there are four airworthy SBD’s (all in the USA). 11 more are museum exhibits or undergoing restoration.

The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was designed as a high altitude fighter, which could engage American heavy bombers and their escorts on equal terms. Work on this aircraft began in 1943 and the design was referred to as Spezial Höhenjäger (special high altitude fighter). The RLM soon gave it the official designation Ta 152. Professor Kurt Tank procured three basic design variants: Normaljäger (conventional fighter), Höhenjäger (high altitude fighter) and Schlachtflugzeug (attack aircraft). The conventional fighter was developed as Ta 152 C version, the high altitude fighter as Ta 152 H and the attack aircraft as Ta 152 B. The conventional fighter was tested with the use of four prototypes, powered by Daimler-Benz DB 603 E and EC engines, rated at 1,800 hp. Production aircraft were to be powered by DB 603 L engines rated at 2,000 hp. The prototypes were completed during 3 November 1944 – 15 January 1945. The high altitude version was given the highest priority, the first production version was the Ta 152 H-0 powered by Junkers Jumo 213 E engine rated at 1,750 hp on take-off, armed with one 30 mm MK 108 cannon and two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons. The Ta 152 H-1 version had the fuel capacity enlarged by 400 liters and provision for GM 1 or MW 50 installations, temporarily boosting engine power at high altitudes. Production totaled 67 Focke-Wulf Ta 152 aircraft of all versions (mostly Ta 152 H) by the end of the war. Those few pilots, who had the opportunity to fly the Ta 152 H in combat emphasized its high speed, outstanding performance at high altitude and very short turn radius in horizontal maneuvers. Ofw. Josef Keil of JG 301 shot down five Allied aircraft flying a Ta 152 H, thus becoming the only Ta 152 ace.

The Henschel Hs 123 was a single-seat biplane dive bomber and close-support attack aircraft flown by the Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War and the early to midpoint of World War II. It was durable and effective in severe conditions, it featured heavily on the Easter Front. This Kagero offering includes 16 pages of drawings and 9 color profiles.

Mil design bureau, led by Mikhail Leonteyevich Mil, was one of the leading soviet plants promoting combination of helicopters and firepower. Mil was personally involved in the development of pre-war A-7 autogyro equipped with machine gun for its own defence and two more for ground targets destroying. However, this type did not reach mass production. But Mil was since that time thinking about arming the rotorcraft, especially after his practise during design of several Bratukhin helicopters, of which some models were intended for artillery spotting and clearly showed that helicopter can play an important role in the army and can be a part of front lineunits. When the Mi-1 helicopter was test flown for the first time on 20th of September 1948, it was clear a very versatile type was born. It became the first mass produced soviet helicopter with vide variety of special variants both for civil and military applications. It has just entered the regular service with the Soviet Army, when US forces used their Bell OH-13s for attack missions in Korean War.

North American P-51 Mustang, famed for its service in the US Army Air Force as a long-rage escort fighter over westernEurope, was no less successful in the other three major combat areas of World War Two: the Mediterranean, the China-Burma-India and the Pacific Theaters of Operations.

Joe Singleton was an unlikely hero. A junior manager at a paints and varnish company at the outbreak of war, he was surprised to discover he had a hidden talent for flying. Despite RAF Fighter Squadrons crying out for replacements after the carnage of the Battle of Britain, Joe was posted to the rapidly developing world of night fighting. He flew first Defiants then Beaufighters as the technological race to field effective night fighters hotted up leading to the first tentative attempts to put radar inside an aircraft. He found himself in the thick of the very earliest stages of ground controlled interception and airborne radar engagements. But the grind of fruitless searches and patrols only served to highlight the futility of lives lost in training and the inherent dangers of flying at night with relatively primitive equipment. His skills finally began to bear fruit when piloting a Mosquito and he took place in several successful missions. But the pinnacle came on the night of 19th March 1944 when he scrambled to intercept a big German raid on Hull and he located and shot down a Junkers 188, then went on to shoot down two more, all in the space of thirteen dramatic minutes. He and his navigator survived the crash-landing that ensued, and he went on to be feted as a national hero. Three in Thirteen is a unique sortie-by-sortie account of his journey from bewildered recruit to celebrated expert, illustrated with extracts from Joe’s RAF logbook, and unpublished photographs and illustrations. Roger Dunsford’s extensive experience as an RAF pilot brings a vivid immediacy to Joe’s experiences combined with astute analysis of the planes, the tactics and the events of that fateful night.

The German assault on Denmark and Norway in April 1940 effectively cut off all surface communications between neutral Sweden and the Western Allies. Diplomats and VIPs still needed to travel to and from Sweden and exports and imports of highly valuable goods needed to be maintained. To gain support for the war against an all-conquering Germany, it was also important to give the Swedish public the opportunity to read British newspapers and magazines. The only realistic way to maintain these links between Sweden and Britain was by air, and a civilian service was immediately established by BOAC. This book covers the history of the flights and the aircraft used. It also has details of the markings and color schemes throughout the war, illustrated with many rare wartime photos and color profiles by the author of all the aircraft types. The BOAC link between Sweden and Britain originally operated by Lockheed Super Electras.Throughout the war, a variety of aircraft would also operate the service, including Hudson, Lodestar, Whitley, Dakota, Liberator and of course the Mosquito, all being demilitarized as the Swedes did not allow armed aircraft to operate on their airfields. From the Norwegian perspective, and helping the allied war effort, the thousands of young Norwegians who fled to Sweden were keen to join the Allied fight against the Nazis. Unhappy with the lack of capacity provided by BOAC, a Norwegian transport unit was established, operating as a detachment of BOAC set up with the focus on carrying people. Keen to keep up exports and allowing Swedish nationals the freedom to travel, Swedish airline AB Aerotransport established their own service to Britain in 1942 with DC-3s, and later B-17s converted to carry passengers and cargo. From 1944, the USAAF Air Transport Command established their service to fly out Norwegian refugees and to return interned bomber crews, operating civilian registered CB-24, C-87 and C-54."The Stockholm Run" book by Nils Mathisrud was awarded the best Swedish aviation book of the year, 2017.

With 158 victories under his belt and dying in the Egyptian sky on the 30th of September, 1942, aged only 22, Hans-Joachim Marseille became a legend of the World War II aviation. Besides his being an exceptional pilot, he owes his reputation to his unconventionality and aversion to authority, which caused him much trouble with his superiors; his chivalrous attitude, moreover, led him to return to his base with a wounded enemy or a damaged plane on several occasions. This behaviour and his formidable combat skills made him famous in Germany as well as among allied pilots, who both respected and feared him. Having collected testimonies from veterans who experienced Marseille, American authors Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis wrote an extremely well-documented biography that traces the short but intense life of this unique aviator, who entered the Hall of Fame or fighter pilots at only 22 years old.

Here is an authentic memoir of a remarkably wide range of Western Front experience from the very beginning of the Great War until the end. Strange was 23 years old when he learned to fly, and was at the Central Flying School when war broke out. He hurriedly packed his kit and reported to Royal Flying Corps headquarters, to join No. 5 Squadron. He was on active duty throughout the whole of the war, seeing service over the Western Front from August 1914 until the enemy’s surrender. In 1915 Strange transferred to No.6 Squadron and went on to form and command No.23 Squadron, but due to illness he did not accompany it to France. There followed a valuable period training others, taking charge of the Machine-Gun School at Hythe, and also other schools of aerial gunnery, before he returned to the Front. There he commanded the 23rd Wing, and finally took command of the 80th Wing from June 1918 until the end of the war. Along the way we see no shortage of insight into exactly how Allied airmen eventually prevailed. Strange died aged 75 in 1966, having continued his association with aviation over the years and adding a Bar to his DFC in the Second World War.

In The Way of the Eagle, Philadelphia native Charles Biddle ’s account of flying in World War I, we have a classic aviation memoir, long out of print, that provides new insights into America’s participation in the Great War.Biddle volunteered and was active in France from 1917, where he flew as a volunteer, initially for the French in Escadrille 73, and then in the American 103rd Aero Squadron (the Lafayette Escadrille), and then the 13th Aero Squadron and 4th Pursuit Group (which he commanded).His memoir was published shortly after his return to the United States and so provides an immediacy that is lacking in other books that were written later. It is important in that accounts of U.S. pilots from this period are relatively rare, even as he also paints a compelling picture of a group of Americans fighting as volunteers for the French. Biddle’s U.S. compatriots soon established their own capability and wrung free of French direction—and as this book reveals it was largely because of their combat prowess.For his service Biddle was awarded the French Legion of Honour, the Croix de Guerre, the American Distinguished Service Cross and the Belgian Order of Leopold II. After the war, Biddle rejoined his family law firm in Philadelphia. He died in 1972.

Sixty Squadron RAF, which covers the period from the disastrous maelstrom of the Somme offensive to final victory, 1916-1919, is one of the classic histories of the Great War. It is the story of a squadron whose members were awarded 1 Victoria Cross, 5 Distinguished Service Orders, 1 Bar to the DSO, 37 Military Crosses and 5 Distinguished Flying Crosses. Pilots of No. 60 Squadron included Harold Balfour, Albert Ball, A.D. Bell-Irving, "Billy” Bishop, K.L. Caldwell, and the young T.B. McCudden, who was killed in action, but whose own accounts of the fighting have also become legendary. Organized in April 1916, No.60 Squadron went to France the next month. It participated in not only the Somme campaign but Arras, Passchendaele and the March 1918 offensive. Group Captain A.J.L. Scott has written in this book not only of the aces under his command but of their German opponents. His account begins with the early stages of scouting and closes with the final concepts of offensive aerial combat during World War I. In the intervening period No.60 Squadron achieved an impressive 274 victories over enemy aircraft. Many of those mentioned in these pages, first published in 1920, remained in aviation in the years after the war and during World War II, with considerable success.

The Supermarine Spitfire is not only one of the most famous British icons, but it is arguably the most widely-recognised and popular aircraft in the history of aviation. For many generations it was said to be ‘every schoolboy’s dream’ to fly a Spitfire, and Flying the Icon: Spitfire aims to give the reader an insight into what that requires.To mark the 80th anniversary of the first flight of Prototype K5054 on 5 March 1936, author Jarrod Cotter presents something entirely different from the previously published histories of the Spitfire. Having spent a great deal of time talking to Spitfire pilots past and present, attending flight operations briefings and Spitfire pilot training courses, he has used his ‘insider’s’ perspective to produce a book solely on flying this most iconic of all fighters.With the use of original wartime Air Ministry Pilot’s Notes, historic flight test documents, modern flight reference cards and pilot’s reports, this book details how the Spitfire was and is flown, and what the pilots thought and think of it nowadays. Included are quotes from test pilots Jeffrey Quill and Alex Henshaw, two of the most respected and well-known personalities who flew this icon.To provide an extreme range of the fighter’s evolution, the variants included comprise Prototype K5054, the Mk.I, Mk.IIa, Mk.Vb, Mk.VIII Mk.IXe/XVIe, PR.XIX and the post-war F.18/22/24. To keep with the theme of the book, it is comprehensively illustrated with pictures of Spitfires flying and pilots in Spitfires. This book is a must-have guide, giving enthusiasts the best possible idea of how to fly the icon that is the Spitfire!