I like small air forces so whenever a book comes out covering planes flown by them I am interested, especially if it shows schemes used by those smaller air forces.

The Bazzocchi Connection is focused on two designs by Engineer Ermanno Bazzocchi who joined Machi during WW2. The Introduction covers early designs leading up to the MB.326 in 1961 after the firm became Aermacchi. This plane later evolved into the MB.339 and these two aircraft make up the bulk of the narrative and pictures.

The book moves through the development history of the MB.326 before moving into operational use. One interesting aspect is tables listing all operational aircraft by serial numbers under the air forces they flew with and with a notes column listing each planes outcome.

Each country is listed in alphabetical order (after Italy) and the history is discussed including any combat these trainers entered into. The cover art shows a South African MB.326 downing an Angolan Hind-24.

The middle of the book contains 30 side profiles. 19 of these are for the MB.326 and include one of four used by the Italian national airline Alitalia for pilot training. Other neat profiles cover Cameroon, Ghana, Paraguay, Togo and Zambia.

There are also 11 profiles of the MB.339 including the Frecce Tricolori aerobatic team as well as Argentina, Eritrea, New Zealand and Peru.

The book then continues with the development of the MB.339 and the operational history of it with more countries.

The book ends with three Appendixes. The first one looks at Aermacchi’s Turboprop Trainer, which would have been a remake of the Finnish Valmet L-90TP to be named the M.290TP but there was no interest and production never started.

Appendix II covers the Aerobatic Teams Operating Aermacchis and does include a paragraph regarding the tragic mid-air collision between three MB.339A/PAN aircraft during the Flugtag ’88 airshow at Ramstein Air Base on August 28, 1988, which killed the 3 pilots as well as 67 spectators and injured another 346 people.

Appendixes III and IV seem a little odd to me as they cover the MB.326’s and MB.339 Competitors. Such aircraft as the Jet Provost, Magister, L-29, L-39 Hawk and Alpha Jet. However there is no assessment of these types with Aermacchi’s designs.

The book is nicely illustrated with over three quarters of the photos in full color and several line drawings covering some of the other versions leading up to the designs. The focus of this book is not on the details some modelers may be looking for. However, for those of us who want to see alternative schemes for our builds, this one does the trick.

Thanks to Casemate and IPMS/USA for this review sample.