Lockheed F-94 Starfire Book Review
By David L. Veres
Date of Review | August 2015 | Title | Lockheed F-94 Starfire |
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Author | Alan C. Carey | Publisher | Ginter Books |
Published | 2015 | ISBN | 9780989258395 |
Format | 162 pages, softbound | MSRP (USD) | $39.95 |
Review
It was, author Alan C. Carey observes, "America's first production fighter equipped with an afterburner" – and the U.S. Air Force's "first jet-powered all-weather interceptor".
It was the F-94 Starfire.
Now Ginter Books covers Lockheed's pioneering warplane in number 218 in its popular "Air Force Legends" series.
Contents follow the publisher's proven prescription. After design and development notes, coverage recaps every operational, experimental and developmental variant.
Hobbyists and detail enthusiasts: take note! Text traverses permutations of F-94 power plants, armament, cockpit, landing gear and fire-control systems. And dozens of photos, tech-manual excerpts and drawings deftly delineate specifics – inside and out.
Coverage then segues to Starfire service. And the unit-by-unit F-94 operations précis – complete with squadron badges – notably includes Korean War deployments. The 318th FIS, for instance, scored four confirmed kills – "two of which", Carey notes, "resulted in the deaths of the attacking F-94 crews".
Starfires also proved popular subjects for some of the earliest plastic kits – Comet, Revell, Aurora and Lindberg. And the penultimate scale model section recaps these, as well as later injection-molded efforts – Heller, Hobbycraft, Emhar and Kitty Hawk. Add cottage industry products. And Carey covers all – complete, in many cases, with photos of build-ups.
Ginter's excellent effort concludes with a page on the F-94's role in Howard Hughes' Jet Pilot with John Wayne and Janet Leigh – and a back cover packed with 14 color Starfire shots.
The F-94A/B/C served with USAF and Air National Guard units from 1950 through 1959. For an admirably illustrated account of Lockheed's legend, grab this handy handbook. It certainly deserves pride of place in Cold War reference libraries.
Strongly recommended!
With thanks to Ginter Books!