Product Description

The IL-28 entered service with the USSR Air force in 1950 and has often been dubbed "The Russian Canberra". It served with the airforces of Egypt, China, Czechoslovakia and Poland, in addition to the USSR. This is an in-depth study of this long-serving light bomber.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #655037 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Remarkably poor effort from Gordon and Komissarov
Gordon and Komissarov can be frustrating authors, offering-up both hits and misses and this book is definitely in the latter group. As the only English-language publication dedicated to this important aircraft, the book is very disappointing and reads as if the authors were going through the motions for another pay cheque.

The prose is cumbersome and wooly with many ``probably'' and ``it is not known'' disclaimers and even one ``it makes you wonder where the others... went''. Why should I have to wonder when I have just bought the book to find out?

The discussion of variants is lifted wholesale from Gordon's article on the IL-28 in Air Enthusiast 71 whilst the remaining narrative is padded with many of Gordon's stand-by anecdotes such as the disaster of Vasiliy Stalin's 1952 fly-by. We've read it all before. As for the captions of the mediocre colour profiles, I failed to glean any particular insight from such gems as ``North Korean Air Force Il-28 314 Red''. Where was it based and when?

There are two features that prevented me from immediately consigning this book to the bin; some of the data tables, such as armament options and performance values, are actually quite useful and the appendix of line drawings do illustrate the differences between the variants. In general, however, I cannot recommend this book particularly at its astronomical RRP.