Midland Publishing

Famous Russian Aircraft:Sukhoi Su-27

by  Yefim Gordon

Reviewed By  Mike Howard, IPMS# 30741

MSRP: $59.95 ISBN: (10) 1 85780 247 0 Distributed in the US by Specialty Press (www.specialtypress.com) After looking through this hardback book for initially over an hour, all I can say is WOW (and, yes, I've spent many more hours with it since then)! This book is definitely a "must have" for any serious Flanker fan or fanatic. With nearly 600 pages (591 to be exact), 12 chapters, over 1000 pictures and drawings and appendices of various statistics, this book should have everything that you've ever wanted to know about the Su-27 and its variants. The chapters advance in a logical progression, starting with the early design ideas and developments. Many pictures and illustrations of early concepts, wind tunnel models, engine development, ejection seats, etc., are quite amazing to see considering the past levels of secrecy that always accompanied Russian aircraft designs. The text goes into great detail of the design requirements and the personnel involved with the birth of the Flanker. You can watch and read how the aircraft changed shape as the design evolved into the current production version flying today. The depth and detail of these chapters show the author's passion for and knowledge of the subject.

Continuing through the pages, the author covers the early production versions used both within the Russian Air Force and the export models. Many nice color photos and color profiles show the camouflage patterns and some of the early display aircraft color schemes. Coverage of weaponry, again in text, photo and illustration, is also nicely presented. I found this portion very interesting as I'm currently working on a Su-27 flown with air-to-ground weapons by the Angolan Air Force. The available weapons suites are covered very well and gave me all of the information that I'd previously been unable to locate.

The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh chapters give excellent coverage to the newer versions of the Flanker, including the naval trials, the Su-30 family and also the dedicated ground attack version, the Su-34 (this would have been VERY handy when I built my 1/72 Italeri kit!!) Chapter 8 covers the Su-27 in Russian service. Many pictures and profiles from actual in service units and on actual bases are great to see for weathering purposes and unit markings. Chapter 9 covers the air display units for the Su-27. Great in-flight pictures show the agility of this big aircraft. Many different bright color schemes are shown as well as a list of pilots that flew the various aircraft.

Chapter 10 seems to be written with the modeler in mind. A plethora of pictures from all angles, inside, outside, everything of all parts of the various incarnations of the Su-27 are found here. This is definitely a gold mine of information for the detail nuts!! Here also are the illustrations of various weapons load configurations that I have not seen anywhere else. Again, a modelers treasure trove. An in depth comparison of the Su-27 its contemporary "competition" is laid out in chapter 11. Lots of charts, scatter plots, and other forms of statistical displays are in attendance. There are also several narratives of how the Flanker fared when flown against various other aircraft. Definitely a VERY captivating portion of this book that I will read several more times. The final chapter, 12, gives coverage of the various non-Russian customers of the Flanker. Again, great color photos and profiles give modelers many different color and markings options for their next Su-27 build. The appendix gives a complete (or at least it looks that way to me) production list of all Su-27 and variations there of. This list will show you who the user of a particular serial number was and often what its buzz number was! As stated early on, this book is a "must have" for aficionados of the Su-27 family of aircraft. Within these pages, I found information that I had searched in vain for previously and even more information than I imagined was publicly available. A very big "Thanks" goes out to Specialty Press and IPMS USA for the review sample. It can also be ordered directly from Specialty Press by calling 1-800-895-4585 (cost is $59.85 plus $4.95 shipping)

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