The FJ Fury series of aircraft has always interested me. I think mostly that’s because they were initially developed along with the F-86. Early decisions by the Navy resulted in their first version having straight wings, but they got their jet first. Of course, research into the information gathered from the Germans at the end of World War II showed that the swept wing was the way to go and the Navy eventually came around to the Army’s (later Air Force’s) way of thinking, resulting in the FJ-2. This aircraft was very similar to the Air Force’s F-86A. Improvements and more powerful engines for the FJ-2 led to the FJ-3, wherein the development started to diverge more and more from the F-86. Yet further developments let to the FJ-4 and FJ-4B Fury.

This book is typical of Steve Ginter’s many other books in the series. It contains lots and lots of useful and interesting photos of the aircraft, starting from the development stages through to the end of the aircraft’s life. Each squadron that flew the aircraft is covered, with a few pages showing typical squadron aircraft usually in their natural environment (aboard ship or airborne). At the back of the book is a short section on modeling the aircraft, followed by line drawings on the inside of the back cover.

I’ve always enjoyed the Ginter books and have always found them useful as sources of reference whenever I’m building a Navy plane. Highly recommended. My thanks go to Ginter Books for the book and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.