|
Specialty Press |
|
Airliner Tech Series, Volume 12 Convair Twins by Nicholas A. Veronicao and William T. Larkins |
|
Reviewed By Walt Fink, #2447 |
|
|
|
MSRP: $16.95 USD ISBN: 1857800736 This work by two noted aviation historians traces the development and history of Convair's Piston Convair-Liners and Prop-Jet Turbo-Liners. In its beginning text, it also describes the Convair's contemporary competitors and their development, notably Martin's 202, 303, and 404, and Boeing's Model 417-42 and 431-16. Typical of the other Airliner Tech series of books from Specialty Press, this work goes into fairly deep detail where aircraft systems and interior configurations are concerned. Profusely illustrated with 159 sharp black and white photographs, 17 color photographs, and 42 artist's renderings and schematics, the aircraft is pretty well-documented. In addition to the many airline liveries, a special section on Airliner-Configured Military Convairs shows several photos of T-29, C-131, and R4Y aircraft as well.
Several tables in the book list the Convair models initially flown by each airline as they entered service, the engine configurations ordered by each, and other data. Appendices in the back of the book feature complete listings of Airline operators and models flown, Second Airline owners, and hull losses by Manufacturer's serial number. There is several travel posters reproduced in the book recounting the glory days of airline travel when airplanes SOUNDED like airplanes and not like vacuum cleaners. But I digress.....
From a modeler's standpoint, I appreciated the detailed explanations and drawings/photos of the unique exhaust systems on the piston-powered Convairs with the quad augmenter tubes; also the later versions of the turboprop power plant conversions were nicely documented. The photos in the book are good enough that landing gear detail can be picked out as well.
There's a short Modeler's section penned by Richard Marmo which lists the kits of the Convair, both old and new, but which omits Faller's kit of the aircraft. Admittedly, I haven't seen this kit around for years now, but it was out there at one time. Marmo laments, "You'd think that with 1/144 airliner models becoming popular that **someone** would deem the 240/340/440 series worthy of a new styrene kit. We can only hope."
Amen to that.
Convairs have flown in just about every airline livery imaginable as well as the FAA, many branches of the U.S. and foreign military services, so the subject matter is fertile ground.
This book gives the airliner buff a good background into one of the most-utilized aircraft in history. Being more of a modeler, I'd have personally liked to have seen some scale drawings of the various configurations, but I can't really fault the book for something it doesn't have---it delivers what its name implies: good in-depth tech data.
Thanks to Specialty Press and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this book; I highly recommended it to airliner enthusiasts for its detail as well as great presentation of airline liveries, most of which will bring back memories to those who remember the aircraft or have flown on it. Now let's lobby for a new kit of the bird! |
|
Information, images, and all
other items placed electronically on this site |
