German Air Projects 1935-1945 Vol 3

This latest book from Mushroom Model Publications (MMP) is the third in a series covering German aircraft projects before and during WWII. This volume covers bomber projects from Arado, Blohm und Voss, BMW, Daimler Benz, Focke-Wulf, Heinkel, Henschel, Horten, Junkers, Lippisch and Messerschmitt. It is in MMP’s usual 9” x 6 ½” soft cover format that they use for their series of aircraft books.

Included amongst the array of aerodynamic innovations are advanced projects powered by piston-engines, jets, and mixed propulsion designs. The imagination of German designers of the period is clear – how practical most of these designs would have been is open for debate!

The majority of the aircraft described are illustrated with 79 line drawings. These are done as side views, top views, front views and 2, 3 and 4-views. The book finishes with some superb color artworks by the author and others. These are computer enhanced paintings and they illustrate what some of the these designs would have looked like in service markings and in the air. I was a little disappointed that some of a particular aircraft was illustrated more than once. I would have preferred to have seen just one of each and the space used for the extra illustrations of them used to depict other conceptual aircraft.

This book will be of great interest to Luftwaffe enthusiasts, the growing number of “What If?” modelers, and air historians and enthusiasts generally.

Included with my sample of this book was 2 copies of MMP’s book catalog. Lots of exciting titles are announced in it which will carry through 2008 with their release dates.

Highly recommended.

I sincerely want to thank Dr. Roger M. Wallsgrove, Editor-in-Chief of MMP for this review sample.