Lockheed P-38 Lightning - Warbird Tech Vol. 2 Paperback – January 1, 1996

First the good: Lots of pictures, some diagrams right out of the repair manuals, covers lots of ground, nice size at aprox 8 1/2 x 11 in., good forward by Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier, some coverage of rare and never built variants. But for a book that is touted as a "fresh approach" using a more "technical" format, this book does not fulfill. Not so much in what it says or shows, but in what it leaves out. Not much of the Allison engine story, no technical details on wing loading or airfoil type, not even any specification charts. Other negatives include: More pictures than text, which leaves very little space in the 100 pages for the story. This forces the author to jump around, sometimes with each paragraph on a totally different subject. Only two aces are covered. All in all, it comes off as a low budget effort. If this book were to sell for (cheaper), and be described as an introduction and overview of the P-38, I would consider it a fair deal. But at twice the price, and sold as a technical approach, it is somewhat of a disapointment.