“Discover
how the oddball little Fleet Fort came into its new role, why the Bolingbroke
was much more than ‘just a Canadian Blenheim’, when chewing gum could prove
vital for a Sunderland crew, who was one of the Allies’ premier train-busters,
and much more…” - excerpt from the book’s back cover.
I
am leafing through this new title from a publishing house that impressed me with
its debut, “Dragons on Bird Wings vol.I” (DoBW), and then left me craving
more for three long years. Aviaeology is now back with the “AviaDossier
1”, the first book in an intended series covering the Canadian
aircraft of WWII.
The
format and scope of this soft-cover is quite different from the DoBW volume, but
I am glad to report that the Aviaeology’s bar remains very high. The book has
a trademark modern and appealing design, with very high paper and print quality.
I can also confirm that it is well bound, as my copy survived one fierce
toddler-attack, plus a scanning session for this review without serious
consequences.
Aviation
books usually fall in one of the two categories. They are either an encyclopedic
listings of different aircraft types with short description, a line drawing and
perhaps one photo, or an exhaustive monographs with everything you ever wanted
to know (and more) about a certain type, or campaign. AviaDossier is quite
refreshing in this regard, as it throws enough focus on each of its subjects to
offer readers something interesting to hold on to, but doesn’t linger for it
to become too demanding, or boring with extreme detail.
Carl
Vincent obviously wields a vast knowledge on this subject, but here manages well
to filter through just enough fundamental information and balance this with rare
photos and colorful anecdotes to make an approachable, inviting and compact
format, interesting even for those who are not fanatically devoted to the topic.
The eclectic spectrum of subjects is completely at author’s discretion, with
motivation for inclusion ranging from personal interest, historic importance,
technical uniqueness, pilot association, to the something completely different.
Without any forced agenda, it feels almost as if someone is telling to the
reader: “now, look at this one for a moment; I find it quite interesting, how
about you?”
Terry
“Aviaeology” Higgins is responsible for the eye-candy in the AviaDossier,
providing us with beautiful color profiles of every type under consideration. As
was the case with the DoBW title, these color profiles give the book a third
dimension and elevate it to the shelf that gets frequent dustings. Not only is
Terry’s art inspiring and lovely to look at, but also very well researched,
accurate in detail and color and can be therefore used as a true reference.
So,
here is a relaxed book that doesn’t pretend to offer any final words and will
sit equally graceful on a coffee table, as in some prized aviation library.
Regardless if you are an aficionado of Canadian flying machines, or think that
they run aircraft on maple syrup up there, this book won’t fail to offer
inspiration and teach a thing or two, without anyone getting annoyed.
As
for me, after a week of casual reading I’ve already accumulated several
quality hours of day-dreaming about various modeling ideas from its 80 odd
pages. Did I mention that Aviaeology also makes decals for a number of these
subjects?
My
sincere thanks go to Terry for kindly sending me an autographed copy of the
AviaDossier 1.
Here’s
exactly what one gets between the covers of this book:
- DeHavilland
Fox Moth (with 2 profiles & 5 photos)
- Consolidated
Catalina I (with 2 profiles & 5 photos)
- North
American Mustang I (with 3 profiles & 6 photos )
- Fleet
Fort (with 2 profiles & 2 photos)
- Short
Sunderland III (with 2 profiles & 5 photos)
- Hawker
Hurricane XII (with 2 profiles & 2 photos)
- Bristol
Bolingbroke IV (with 3 profiles & 5 photos)
- Northrop
Delta (with 4 profiles & 5 photos)
- Douglas
Boston III & IIIA (with 2 profiles & 3 photos)
- Consolidated
Liberator GR.V(Can) (with 1 profile & 4 photos)
- Bristol
Bolingbroke IVW (with 2 profiles & 3 photos)
- Blackburn
Shark II (with 2 profiles & 2 photos)
- Supermarine
Stranraer (with 1 profile & 2 photos)
- Supermarine
Spitfire FR.IX & FR.XIV (with 1 profile ea. & 2 photos)
- Beaufighter
TF.X (with 5 profiles & 10 photos)
- Lysander
IIIA TT (with 2 profiles & 2 photos)
- Curtiss
Kittyhawk Mk.IV (with 2 profiles & 2 photos)
- Lockheed
Hudson I (with 4 profiles & 5 photos)
- Stocky
Edwards’ Spitfire & Fw190 (with 1 profile ea. & 3 photos)
General
listing information:
ISBN:
978-0-9780696-3-6
Author:
Carl Vincent
Illustrator:
Terry Higgins
80pgs,
81⁄2x11(216x279mm) landscape format perfect-bound laminated card softcover,
20,000 words*, 70+ photos (4 in color), 45 large color profile illustrations and
4 color maps.
MSRP
$29.99
E-Mail:
sales@aviaeology.com
Web:
www.aviaeology.com.
Aleksandar Šekularac
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