B 17: Flying Fortress

New York: Crown Publishers. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 1983. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. 0517549859 . This specific hardback book is in fine condition with very minimal wear and a hard board cover that has sharp edges and corners and a tight binding. The pages are clean, crisp, unmarked and uncreased. The dust jacket is in near fine condition with only a bit of cover or edge wear. We package all books in custom cardboard book boxes for shipment and ship daily with tracking numbers.; "In the 1980s, Jane's of London initiated an art project. It teamed great writers and a magician of light and shadow to profile famous WW II airplanes- of which there were more than a few- while telling combat episodes of their pilots. Text is factual and crisp, development followed by operational introduction then operational history. Rikyu Watanabe is the artist; every drawing clear and delicate as if captured in a hologram. All were outstanding artwork. B-17: Roger Freeman, well known for his related works, discusses the distant cousin 247D civilian airliner, then XB-15 testbed, and next, the YB-17 service test units. On p. 10 is a foldout: one side is the 'Memphis Belle', a well used combat machine, turn it over to compare all three with their later cousin, B-29 Superfortress. Early combat revealed defensive weakness in even the 'Flying Fortress', and it required more modifications- some just impracticable. Still, the Luftwaffe developed tactics to break up the prickly US formations. In the end, the best solutions were escort fighters around the bombers and low-level fighter-bombers to shoot up every airdrome. Page 38 is another of those impressive cutaway drawings of the different bulkheads and equipment listed by number. P 42-44 is an outstanding drawing of the cockpit and bombardier stations-- any pilot will stop here and stare at the detailed panel."; 13 X 10.50 X 0.70 inches; 56 pages .