I have always been interested in aircraft colors and markings. My library is full of books from Karl Ries, Monogram, Ducimus, Harleford and many others. I had expected this book to be a similar tome devoted to three view drawings, color call-outs and marking drawings. The authors would provide the data and then choose a photo to illustrate their information.

This book is different. It is a collection of very interesting photos, most from the Newark Air Museum. The Photos illustrate a great variety of color and markings of the four covered aircraft, during the target timeframe. Aircraft that are covered include the Hunter, the Canberra (part 1), the Valetta and the Vampire T.11. All of the photos appear to have been taken in the UK and the aircraft are primarily RAF aircraft.

In addition to the photos, the author includes serial number allocations based on different variants of the aircraft, disposition of the aircraft in many of the photos and a detailed three view drawing by Richard Caruana for each of the main models.

The Hunter, Canberra and Vampire are well known aircraft with many books written about them. The Valetta however is less well known. This twin engine transport aircraft was somewhat based on the Wellington bomber and served in the RAF through 1964. The author states the many of the Valettas were used by airlines but no photos are included.

This book was an interesting read. The photos were beautiful and well captioned and will be valuable references. The table of contents is very well organized so the modeler can easily find markings for a specific squadron. This book is well recommended to modelers and aviation historians who are interested in British aircraft of the 60’s. Two additional volumes of this series are being developed. They too will each contain a Fighter, Bomber, Transport and Trainer.

I would like to thank Specialty Press for their donation of this reference book and to IPMS for letting me have this review.