Checklist: New items for the aviation enthusiast

Air Classics, Jun 2003 by Hulett, George

GREAT WAR ITALIAN ACES

Massive volume provides much new material

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in books concerning aircraft and pilots of World War One and one of the latest is Italian Aces of World War I and their Aircraft by Roberto Gentilli, Antonio, Iozzi, and Paolo Varriale (Schiffer Military History, $69.95).

While in other nations, particularly Great Britain and the United States, a mythology was born and developed about the air war's aces that produced studies and research on aviation in the Great War which kept alive a memory. In Italy, no serious study was ever undertaken and, besides Francesco Baracca, all these heroes of the past are nearly totally forgotten. Paradoxically, Italians know about von Richthofen, the Red Baron (thanks to Peanuts' Snoopy) and not about their own aces.

There are two concurring reasons for the lack of Italian research on WWI aviation: In the first quarter century after the war, while films and pulp magazines in England and the United States celebrated "the knights of the air," in Italy the fascist regime used aviation as a powerful propaganda tool, exploiting the success of the Schneider Trophy racers or the mass ocean flights of Balbo and celebrating the growing power of the air force - as used in Ethiopia or Spain. But, in doing so, the dictatorship had to pretend that aviation was its own creation - so it belittled through silence the fact that Italian democracy had managed to create a powerful and victorious air force in the Great War.

This book chronicles, for the first time, the detailed histories of the 42 Italian aces of the Great War. From legendary personalities such as Baracca and Scaroni to completely forgotten aces, each biography details their personalities and their combat careers during and after the war.

Charts report all their victories with careful cross-referencing to Austrian and German losses. An introduction puts the air war on the Italian front in perspective - showing the development and actions of the Italian air force including many orders of battle and brief histories of all fighter squadrons.

Weighing almost seven pounds, the hook contains over 500 previously unpublished photographs from private sources as well as 24 pages of color profiles of Nieuports, Spads, Hanriots, and Macchis - providing a stunning visual complement for the historian and the modeler. Highly recommended.

HIGHER AND FASTER

Chronicling the magnificent North American X-15

It is rather amazing to considering that some 19 years before the advent of the Space Shuttle, North American Aviation had built an aircraft that showed it was possible to fly into outer space. There had never been anything like the X-15 it had a million-horsepower engine and could fly twice as fast as a rifle bullet. The X-15 and its pilots set records that stood for years.

Hypersonic - The Story of the North American X-15 by Dennis Jenkins and Tony Landis (Specialty Press, $39.95) is the most extensive book available on the X-15. The book was written with the cooperation of surviving X-15 pilots as well as many other program principles and is based on six years of research in USAF, NASA, and NAA archives. The book covers the tasks of converting and testing the B-52 carrier platforms, building the first full-pressure suits to protect the pilot, building the first engineering mission simulators, acquiring the remote lakebed landing sites, and building the radar range. It also covers the flight program in detail, including a complete flight log and, in many instances, information in this log was derived from the original flight data recordings.

Also covered are each of the experiments that were flown aboard the X-15 late in its career when it became the workhorse of the space program, carrying such things as star-trackers destined for the Apollo program and missile detection systems that would later be sent into orbit on satellites.

Packed with 500 black and white photographs, 50 color photos, and 100 drawings, this new offering from Specialty is recommended.