Specialty Press

US Aircraft in the Soviet Union and Russia

by  Yefim Gordon and Sergey Komissarov (with Dmitriy Komissarov)

Reviewed By  John Lester, IPMS# 36807

Hardcover , 8.5 x 11" 336 pp. with 600 color and b/w photos MSRP: $63.95 ISBN 10: 1857803086 ISBN 13: 9781857803082 Website: www.specialtypress.com US aircraft first came to Russia in 1908 and never really left. We think about Lend Lease during WW2, but that program represented only a portion of the US's influence on the development of Russia's aircraft industry, as well as civil and military aviation over the years. Yefim Gordon and Sergey Komissarov have compiled an exhaustive history of US aircraft, engines and aviation equipment used by pre-revolutionary Russia, the Soviet Union, and today's Russia and supplemented it with a huge array of pictures and drawings. The book is divided into six chapters, plus an Introduction and selected bibliography: The Period to 1920: Russia's Acquaintance with American Aviation Pioneers. The 'Twenties and 'Thirties: An Influx of American Technology. The War Years: Lend Lease Deliveries. Aircraft in a Cold War Climate: 1945-1991. The Period After 1991: Piston Engine and Turboprop VIP; General Aviation and Sport Aircraft, Helicopters and Autogyros. The text is clear, concise and easy to follow. It's exhaustively researched, too - right down to deliveries of obscure engines and their derivatives. The amount of detail is amazing; literally every aircraft type ever sent East, even in ones and twos, is covered with photos and text - including aircraft captured or recovered in Viet Nam and elsewhere. As good as the text is the photos - at least from a modeler's perspective - are the real highlight of the book. Nearly every page is crowded with photos, and not just the propaganda stills with smiling pilot in front of generic airplane. Want to know how the Soviet's modified the DC-3 landing gear? There's several photos of that. License-built PBY-1 with engine cowl shutters? It's there. P-47s and DC-10s and B-29's (oh my!) too. Plus a whole host of aircraft (including some funky helicopters) you didn't know existed, let alone were sold to the Russians. Most of the major types have color profiles and detailed line drawings to supplement the photos. The only drawback I can find to the book is that it lacks an index - which is a problem with a work as densely packed with information as this. My copy has already sprouted a collection of post-it notes to mark interesting photos and text. All-in-all, this is an outstanding reference for the modeler and aviation enthusiast alike and well worth the asking price. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Specialty Press for the review sample.