March of 2016 marks the 80^th birthday of the Spitfire design. Like its American counterpart the P-51, the Spitfire is the most numerous survivor of its country’s WWII fighters both on display and flying! As the years go by we lose more and more of those who were there and flew these machines in the last great global conflict. Soon they all will have passed into history. Their machines though will live on to tell the story.

Each of the Spitfires discussed in this book has a service history. Whether found behind a hangar, unearthed or recovered from crash sites on land and in the sea, they have been lovingly rebuilt. Some seemingly from only a few remaining usable parts.

We are given a beautiful, large book equally at home in the library or on the coffee table! We are given the histories of these survivors. This is accompanied by both photos of the restored aircraft as well as photos of said aircraft in service.

Tony Buttler was born in 1956, and joined High Duty Alloys in Redditch in 1974 as a metallurgist. For nearly 20 years he was closely involved in the testing of aluminum and titanium airframe and engine components for many of the world’s most important airplanes. It was during this timeframe that his interest in military aircraft grew into a passion. Since 1995, Tony has been a freelance aviation historian, with this book being his eighteenth major release. He has also written many titles for the Warpaint series of monographs as well as many articles for most of the popular historical aviation magazines.

One of the best looking aircraft of WWI, in my opinion, is the Albatros series of fighters. This streamlined plywood aircraft was widely used during the war. Flown by many of the great aces such as Manfred von Richtofen it proved itself a worthy warplane. Despite this, the Albatros had a fatal flaw, in that the lower wing would twist and occasionally fail.

The kit contains two sprues of light grey plastic. The plastic has fine engraved panel lines and raised access panels. It is beautifully detailed. There are two frets of photo etch. One is pre-painted, and the other is brass. There is also a set of masks to aid in painting the wheels, an oil cooler, and the red surround on the tail surfaces, should you decide to use that marking option. Decals are printed by Cartograf, so you know they are perfect. There are markings for four aircraft, plus lozenge decals for the wings, along with a sheet of stripes for the ribs.

This book is very unique in the sense that it covers one century of aviation history, but selected in a particular way: French airplanes in Peruvian Service. Let me be clear, from reading the book you learn -in great level of detail- not just about that topic in the title, but about the overall history of Peruvian Air Force (PAF), with a strong emphasis on French airplanes in the PAF.

The book is broken down in four main sections

• Early Years (up to 1920s)
• InterWar Years (1930’s)
• The Deltas (1960s-Today)
• Alouettes and Falcons (Today)

The first chapter covers mainly the history of aviation entrepreneurs and fledging military aviators in Peru. Well illustrated with period photos it helps to set the tone for the book. The second chapter covers the 1930’s years, after the Peruvian-Colombian war, a period of high tension and military readiness.

The Loach, tiny, maneuverable and deadly to the enemy. This little helicopter was loved by its pilots, crew and maintainers. The mission was deadly serious and many helicopters never made it to their first maintenance inspection.

This sheet from AOA is a welcome addition for the Dragon/Italeri kit and the anticipated Kitty Hawk Loach. Having only flown in this legendary helicopter once with a Vietnam hero, Hugh Mills, I can say that this sheet is awesome. While Hugh Mills and the Dark Horse aircraft have been done a lot for their colorful sharkmouths it is refreshing to see some new markings. Vietnam aircraft sported some colorful markings and until recently they have gone unnoticed. Thanks to AOA that is no longer the case.