Synopses & Reviews
To the victor goes the skies...
Jet aviation began as a dynamic, if underutilized, part of a desperate race between Hitler's scientists and the Allies. Today it is an indispensable component of warfare: space-age machines, incredibly skilled pilots, and weaponry that thinks for itself. Today's top guns strap themselves into electronic-crammed cockpits, hurtle billion-dollar aircraft against concussive G-forces, evade radar behind electronic cloaks, and fire weapons with deadly pinpoint control. In this dramatic, action-packed history, we witness Allied propeller planes dogfighting German Me 262 jets at the end of World War II; America's first jet aces making kills in Korea; the Israeli Air Force's stunning victory against its Arab neighbors and Soviet planes; and the feat of the British Harrier force in the Falklands. From Vietnam to the Gulf War, Rolling Thunder tells a story of tactics, innovations, breakthroughs, and battles, as fighting men and machines push each other to the edge--and beyond....
Synopsis
Having served in the Royal Air Force, the author brings an insider's knowledge to this history of the jet fighter, beginning with its birth in battle during the last ways of World War II. "Smoothly written . . . the most up-to-date history of the military jet".--"The Washingtonian".