I thought it was great except for two glaring errors. In one sentence he talks
about the tendency of the big radials to "stall without warning" and in another
he talks about the WWII carrier decks being very dangerous places with whirling
props,..., jet fuel,... Jet fuel? In 1943?

I saw this remarked upon elsewhere--the bit about jet fuel, I mean.
Which leads me to think it's the major howler in the book. One
suspects that it was inserted by a 23-year-old editor.

I had an editor of Air & Space (Air & Space!) ask me what "high
explosives" were.

As for the big radials, well, perhaps they did have a tendency to
stall--which an aviator would describe as quitting. To most
non-pilots, stalling exactly means an engine stopping without warning.

Those errors make me wonder about some of the other facts he presents. The book
does contain an excellent bibliography, however, so I don't think he's made
anything up, and I hope to find time to check out some of his references.

Please post your thoughts. I haven't bought the book; I'm still
inclined to.


all the best -- Dan Ford
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