Aviation Book Reviews
Vought F7U-3 Cutlass Hardcover –2024, Crecy
Tommy H Thomason and Alfred C Casby
FIVE STARS
When this popped up on a Facebook page (I think it was The Aviation Enthusiast Book Club), the aviation writer Bill Sweetman wryly replied that 384 pages devoted to the Cutlass were rather too generous a treatment and compared it to a boxset of the music of Yoko Ono. Now, as a fan of both Yoko Ono and the Cutlass, I must disagree. This book roundly avoids a plague that has affected some recent aircraft books, and that is filler. I get it, an author commits to X number of pages on a B or C-list aircraft and runs out of material, and suddenly, you have historical context going back to the Stone Age and 80 pages of serial numbers. There is absolutely no filler in this superb book; it is a lavishly illustrated, superbly researched celebration of one of the best-looking aircraft in history. Some of the reproduced documents of the time are a real treat.
When I asked Bill if I could feature his Yoko joke above, he said on condition I acknowledge that he agrees with the book’s authors that the Cutlass is often unfairly singled out for criticism when all early carrier jet operations were very hairy (and the Scimitar and Crusader sometimes do not get the criticism they deserve). This is a fair point, and one the authors attack with brilliant data, and one particularly revealing graph. This book is a gorgeous object and is the only Cutlass reference work you need. Essential reading for Cold War aircraft enthusiasts . I strongly recommend this book
Kawanishi H6K ‘Mavis’ and H8K ‘Emily’ Units
Edward M. Young
Osprey Publishing, 2024
A fascinating insight into Japanese air power in World War II, author Edward M Young has packed a mass of information into this 96-page book. No stone is left unturned in his dogged research into these rather elegant flying boats and their (often thwarted) operations. This serious reference book is backed up with high-quality digital artworks, which bring some welcome colour. Historical details bring the horrors of warfare to life, “During the attack on Cairns, a single H8K1 dropped bombs in error on the town of Mossman, north of Cairns, wounding a small childâ€. Something about the small scale of this event stuck with me in a way that bigger, more epic events do not, and this book, with its multiple references from war diaries, is full of these human moments. This useful, well-researched book contains facts that will educate and entertain the most seasoned aviation historian.
