Jean-Christophe Carbonel

Delightful Follow-up to Volume One, Excellent as a Stand-Alone Purchase

Superb survey of post WWII design efforts by the French to maintain state-of-the-art aircraft design covering a range of aircraft types. There were a few delightful surprises within this book which included chapters on Troop Mobility Vehicles and other unconventional aircraft. The coverage of each type of aircraft is of decent breath and depth. If you're looking for specific information on the development of a particular aircraft, look elsewhere. What you get here is a brief description of the program,the requirements and politics that drove it and a description of the paper airplanes and prototypes that were built. If serial production was achieved,there is a brief description of those aircraft. Aside from the bombers mentioned in the Amazon description there is coverage of COIN, Cargo, ASW, Helicopters, and a few other types.There are a few typographical errors, none of which detract from the quality of the text or the illustrations. (Be aware that a few of the reproductions are from very old sources and reproduction is not always perfect.) Highly recommended for those with an interest in French aviation, aircraft development, Cold War aircraft, or aircraft development.… (plus d'informations)

This has been a very pleasing read. It is well illustrated and appears to be very comprehensive. The book covers the range of immediate post WWII fighters up through VG Mach 3 aircraft. On the way to M3 there are chapters on VTOL/Tail-sitters, naval aircraft, etc. Limited coverage is also provided on history of the major airframe and engine companies.
There is some very limited overlap into production aircraft that may annoy a few readers. In that respect, I think the coverage on those aircraft is balanced considering the theme of the book.
If you want to quibble, there a few issues with translation and grammar. In no way do they detract from this book. In my opinion, there have been scant English language books available on French aerospace. This book is a welcome addition to my library.
On a personal note, the photo of the TF306 is by far and away the best I've ever seen.… (plus d'informations)

While the second half of the author's coverage of post-World War II French aviation is not quite as fascinating as the first there's still quite a lot of good material here. As the subtitle implies, besides coverage of bombers you'll also find anything that can be described as an army cooperation aircraft, including assault transports and helicopters. Still, the single most interesting chapter refers to a truly secret project that was called "Minerve" which dealt with a variety of aircraft that were supposed to be capable of air-launching a ballistic missile; the cover illustration is that of one such project. Again, if you have and like the first book you will also want this one.… (plus d'informations)