Product Description

This book is the first of a trilogy describing the history of aircraft guns, their ammunition and installations in aircraft. The other two volumes (covering 1914-33 and 1945-2000+) will be published later.

It commences with a technical history covering the development of guns, ammunition (including the performance of explosive, incendiary and armour-piercing projectiles) and related issues such as mountings and sights. This is followed by chapters on aircraft installations covering all nations and an evaluation of their use in combat. Fighter, bomber and ground-attack installations are all described in detail.

Appendices include comprehensive tables of the gun installations of WW2 combat aircraft; data tables about the weapons and ammunition; illustrations of the guns used; projectile colour codes; and an assessment of the effectiveness of the various guns and armament installations.

There has never before been a comprehensive description of World War 2 aircraft gun armament, and 'Flying Guns: World War II' contains much information that has never before been published. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of aerial combat in this era.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #560400 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

About the Author
Anthony G Williams has previously published 'Rapid Fire: The Development of Automatic Cannon, Heavy Machine Guns and their Ammunition for Armies, Navies and Air Forces'

Customer Reviews

A retread of research from ``Rapid Fire''
Within a short time of receiving this book I realised that I had essentially purchased the same work twice, with the author's earlier book ``Rapid Fire'' ( ISBN 1840371226 ) already on my shelf. ``Flying Guns: The Modern Era'' reads as a slightly expanded version of the ``Weapons for Air Fighting'' chapter of that book.

There are early flourishes of promise dashed by lack of endeavour; for example, a section dedicated to gun pods quickly decays into dull regurgitation of various weights and dimensions that would fit into a half-page table, instead of addressing the interesting history and design problems of these pods.

The book then moves on to the installation of gun armament in selected aircraft. Again there are tantalising glimpses of what this book could have been, such as the discussion of the proposed armaments for the B-36, but the authors soon revert to wrapping verbiage around data that would be better presented in tabular form. Bizarrely, there is actually an Appendix entitled ``Installation Tables'' that renders these chapters superfluous; it lists individual aircraft types with their installed gun armaments and ammunition capacities.

Many illustrations and a large proportion of the scale drawings will be familiar from `Rapid Fire''. Some of the new additions to the drawings, such as that of the GAU-8, are embarrassingly shoddy though not as embarrassing as the authors' excuse that they have had to render these from ``poor-quality'' sources.

Throughout there is a tendency to vagueness; we are told that the MiG-27 experienced ``installation problems'' with the GSh-6-30 ( actually fuel-tank fractures ) and that the development status of the RMK30-2 is ``unclear'' ( perhaps a call to Mauser would have helped clarify ).

A disappointing by-the-numbers repackaging of previous work. Even previous errors, such as claiming that the NR-30 is gas-operated, are repeated without correction.

Fascinating
Clear , informative and well-illustrated. A look at the contents gives an idea of the book's scope. The chapter on combat experience is particularly interesting.
By the way, the authors' remark about working from poor photos applies only to a few side -views of guns given solely for purposes of size comparison.
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Excellent
If you're interested in aerial combat you'll enjoy this book. It covers not only guns and ammunition, but their use in operations, effectiveness and any difficulties (or particular advantages) in their use. This book helps to create an excellent context for other accounts of WWII in the air. Read it!