WWI-in-Plastic PRODUCT REVIEW German Monoplane Fighters of WWI: A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes, Great War Aviation Centennial Series (Volume 13) by Jack Herris. Series: Great War Aviation Centennial Series Paperback: 152 pages Publisher: Aeronaut Books (September 20, 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 1935881248 ISBN-13: 978-1935881247 Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces The subject of this book describes and illustrates the development of German monoplane fighters in WWI. This includes prototypes and production aircraft. With text it has 310 photos, 50 color profiles, production quantities and serial numbers of aircraft, and over all aircraft dimensions and performance specifications. There are four specific monoplane fighters illustrated in 1/48 scale drawings. It has 152 letter-size (8.5”x11”) pages and is of interest to aviation historians, enthusiasts, and modelers alike. Aeronaut publishing has gone to some lengths to get the drawings accurately rendered in 1/48. Often I have seen lesser publishers attempt to fit scale drawings to a dimensional page width, therefore sacrificing the scale in blowing up or shrinking a drawing. The table of contents on page 2 is impressive with a list of 41 specific aircraft types. (The LVG early variants had 3 specific types). Over all the war began in 1914 and men had been designing aircraft at this time in history based on the biological structure of birds and natural shapes of winged seed pods (Taube). As a result overall the aircraft were very large with nominal horse powered engines. The rigging needed to keep the skeletal portions together under stress was as much a problem due to the drag it created as any positive attributes it provided. As the war and design developments marched on the monoplane was revisited, resulting in the appearance Fokker E.V. It was the last production fighter of the German Air Service in 1918. It had a troubled start with the problem being traced to poor workmanship in the wing manufacturing shops of the Fokker subsidiary. When gussets and webs were installed correctly the plywood covered wing of the E.V met and exceeded required specifications and production aircraft were labeled “D.VIII.” Outwardly they were indistinguishable other than the serial, (some examples still labeled as E.V) soldiered on even after the end of World War One. It was fleshing out infant air forces in other countries. Nicknamed the ‘Razor’, due to its head-on profile, but in 1918 it was the cutting edge. The profiles all seem very accurate in nature. My only quibbles are that: 1. Some Fokker E.V types had tail surface components that were covered in 5 color lozenge and the fuselage covered in 4 color lozenge fabric. Fok. E.V 149/18 for instance. 2. Some of the photos on the right side pages appear cropped from the original images. This aside I feel that this monograph is a fine work that goes beyond many other previously published efforts. It contains in one place subject matter in detail that one would have to have search a hundred other books to even find listed. I highly recommend this book to all historians, devotees, research fiends and modelers interested in the topic.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:07:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015