U.S. Navy and Marine Carrier-Based Aircraft of World War II Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

Detail and Scale is back with another electronic title in their growing library of digital references. This latest release is an interesting compilation of US Navy and Marine carrier aviation aircraft from World War II, but not just the well-known production models, but also those that didn't progress beyond the prototype stage. As with their previous titles, this electronic book uses the interactive features of the iPad and Kindle which you cannot replicate in printed titles. What does that mean to you?

• You can use menu hyperlinks to jump straight to a section of interest
• You can expand photos and drawings to full-screen
• You can zoom in on details in photos and drawings for a closer look
• You can search for specific text within the title
• You can bookmark items of interest
• You can highlight and annotate the book with your own notes

If you've seen the Detail and Scale hardcopy titles of the past, you can think of this as an abbreviated version of that series, but instead of focusing on one aircraft subject, this one covers the breadth of US carrier aviation (operational and prototypes) through the end of WWII. For each subject, there is a brief summary of the aircraft's development and history, period photos of the aircraft in action (or test), color photos of the cockpit interior (where available), and a discussion of relevant markings and camouflage colors carried by each subvariant.

You can see in the sample pages below that this is still the thorough Detail and Scale format, but there's lots more of it at your fingertips. What's more, my iPad is no heavier with 274 more pages of reference inside...

Coverage includes:

• Fighters
  • F2A Buffalo
  • F4F/FM Wildcat
  • XFL Airabonita
  • XF5F Skyrocket
  • F4U/FG/F3A Corsair
  • XF14C
  • F6F Hellcat
  • F7F Tigercat
  • F8F Bearcat
  • XF5U Flying Pancake
  • FR Fireball
  • XF2R Dark Shark
  • XF-15C Stingaree
• Scout/Dive Bombers
  • SBC Helldiver
  • SB2U Vindicator
  • XSBA/SBN
  • SBD Dauntless
  • SB2A Buccaneer
  • SB2C Helldiver
• Torpedo Bombers
  • TBD Devastator
  • TBF/TBM Avenger
  • XTBU/TBY Sea Wolf
• Attack Aircraft
  • XSB2D/BTD Destroyer
  • XBTK

In addition to looking at individual aircraft types, this reference provides a description of key carrier aircraft actions in World War II (Appendix 1) and a thorough discussion of the identification markings used both early and late in World War II to identify an aircraft's squadron/air group, and aircraft carrier assignment (Appendix 2).

If you're a fan of a one or more of these aircraft, by all means grab the relevant D&S titles for your reference, but if you like to model US Navy/Marine carrier aviation but not to the extent of having stacks of references on your shelf, this handy title will provide you with a one-stop-shop reference to get your project accurately to completion.

Head over to Amazon or the iTunes Store and order a copy. This technology is also truly instant gratification as the title will download to your tablet on completion of your purchase.

For more information about this and other titles, visit their website.

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Detail & Scale for this review copy.