The Rand McNally Encyclopedia Of Military Aircraft, 1914-1980

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft

by Enzo Angelucci

English, Italian (translation)

Genres: Reference, History, Military History, Aviation, Nonfiction, Aircraft

546 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an awesomely huge coffee table book full of excellent art.

[Zoltan Telepoczki · Rating 5 out of 5]

inexhaustible source of information

[Curtiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spectacular look at 800 types of military aircraft, from 1914 to 1980; with 3-view drawings, 1706 color illustrations, scale profiles, 772 cut-away drawings, 252 photographs, and aircraft operational histories and performance characteristics. Plus color line charts comparing production runs, bomb loads, maximum speeds, and operating ranges for various front-line fighter & bomber aircraft.

[Chris Rhetts · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a huge disappointment! I'm giving it 3 stars because, as others have noted, about half the book consists of very excellent illustrations and original photographs. Most annoyingly however, the other half (about 200 pages or so) consists of histories, observations and judgements by Mr. Angelucci - interspersed with hundreds of basically useless 2"x 3" line drawings. What makes this so frustrating is that apparently a great deal of investment went into the illustrations and photographs, but technical details for each airplane are brief and sadly lacking in detail. I found myself wondering how much better this book could have been if the HUGE amount of space devoted to Mr. Angelucci's opinions had been used instead for technical, operational and production information for each airplane. I don't doubt Mr. Angelucci is a knowledgeable person, but I didn't buy this book to read 200 pages of his opinions.

[Yoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Truly Encyclopedic Work

It is no exaggeration to call this book a truly encyclopedic work. It covers just about every military aircraft manufactured from the first world war until the book’s publication in 1988. Just about every plane has at least one or two pages dedicated to it (with the more prolifically manufactured, a few more pages). The book is filled with technical specifications, photographs and line diagrams. The illustrations are magnificent. A five star reference for model builders and military aviation.

[Ruppert Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extensive overview of nearly every military aircraft ever built. An encyclopedia certainly.

[Ha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geek boys dream.

[Mhorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely brilliant reference book that needs to be on the shelf of any military aircraft enthusiast.