ACES HIGH

 Bernard Fitzsimons

 Introduction by Walter J. Boyne, Salamander 1988.

As Walter Boyne makes clear in his introduction, military flying involves minute-by-minute, life-or-death adjustments to equipment costing tens of millions of dollars in the face of hazards ranging from bad weather to rapidly emptying fuel tanks.

Add the threat of imminent destruction by hostile missiles and then sheer physical stress of high-g combat manoeuvres and the pilot of a modern fighter needs to be " a combination Olympic class athlete, executive and Samurai-Ninja."

The book collects the work of some of the finest aviation photographers operating on both sides of the Atlantic in an attempt to convey some of the care, skill and precision – as well as the undoubted glamour – that military flying involves.

The large format covers the whole range of military aircraft, fighters, bombers, naval and maritime patrol, tankers, transports and helicopters, spyplanes and electronic warfare planes.

This is a feast for the military aircraft enthusiast, there are photographs taken from both inside and outside various planes. Sumptuous colour photography.

 Apart from a few very light and minor creases to the top of the dust jacket, mostly at the rear, towards the spine, both the book and the dust jacket are in very good condition

 As the Book is large the scanned image is slightly clipped.