Fighter! by Bill Gunston

Fighter! (Illustrated Pictorial History of Fighter Aircraft)

A Richly Illustrated Survey of International Fighter Aircraft from the First World War to Modern Times

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Fighter!: A pictorial history of international fighter aircraft
• Author: Bill Gunston
• Editor: Philip de Ste. Croix
• Publisher: Parragon, Bristol
• Publication Date: 1997
• ISBN-13: 9780752526089
• ISBN-10: 0752526081
• Edition Details: Reprinted 1998. Parragon Bristol hardcover edition, first published 1997.
• Binding: Publisher's illustrated laminated hardcover boards in blue, with the cover illustration printed on the boards. Issued without a dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Large illustrated quarto-format hardcover, 96 pages. Heavily illustrated with colour and black-and-white photographs.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Good (G)
• Exterior / Boards: The glossy laminated pictorial boards are blue. The spine is straight and clean, with a small white chip or nick at the head. One lower corner shows rubbing, small chips and fraying of the laminate at the tip, slight lifting along the board edge and some greyish dirt. The back board edges show light wear.
• Interior: The pages examined are clean and bright, with colour and black-and-white photographs and no markings. The binding is tight. The free endpaper shows a couple of small brown spots (foxing), a faint pen-like line and a slight crease at the hinge.
• The Dust Jacket: Not Applicable (As Issued)

Synopsis & Historical Value

Fighter! A Pictorial History of International Fighter Aircraft is a large-format illustrated survey of the fighter aeroplane, covering more than eighty years of its development from the First World War onward. It was published by Parragon in Bristol, with Philip de Ste. Croix as editor.

Archive photographs, both colour and black and white, are combined with colour portraits of restored vintage aircraft. The book also tells the story of the pilots and the machines they flew.

It is a handsome, visual reference for aviation enthusiasts and a good companion volume for collectors of military aviation literature.

Author Profile: Bill Gunston

Bill Gunston OBE, FRAeS (1927-2013) was a British aviation and military author. After service in the RAF he joined the journal Flight in 1951 and became its technical editor in 1955. From 1969 he worked on Jane's All the World's Aircraft, and he later edited Jane's Aero-Engines.

He is credited with more than 300 books. Among them are Modern Air Combat, The Encyclopedia of Modern Warplanes, Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II and Aircraft of the Soviet Union.

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