David Doyle’s latest book continues to expand on Squadron Signal’s long standing In Action series that initiated back in 1971. This is a completely updated and expanded edition over Squadron’s earlier Aircraft In Action number 75, a 50-pager on the Bell UH-1 Huey by Wayne Mutza that was published in 1986.

After many years of being published in enthusiast publications focused on military vehicle restorations, David Doyle ‘graduated’ to full-fledged books in 2003. His first book was a hefty 512 page history of US military vehicles. He has now had more than 100 books published in military vehicles, aviation and naval topics. David and his wife Denise have amassed a collection of ten Vietnam era military vehicles that still displays at shows. In June 2015, was honored with the Military Vehicle Preservation Association’s Bart Vanderveen Award, given in recognition of "...the individual who has contributed the most to the historic preservation of military vehicles worldwide." Be sure to check out David’s website at www.DavidDoyleBooks.com where you can see and buy at a discounted price off of MSRP all his books that are still available.

This book follows the normal format of the In Action series, detailing the development and service history of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. This is expanded from Squadron’s standard 60 page version of their In Action format and it runs 80 pages packed with large, clear photographs. The front cover features a color photograph of UH-1Ds preparing to airlift elements of the 2^nd Battalion, 14^th Infantry Regiment on May 16, 1966. The rear cover features an UH-1Y Venom during an air-support exercise at Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range in California on September 28, 2016. I counted 222 well captioned photographs; 162 in color and 60 in black and white. There were 18 black and white drawings highlighting the variants. You can find a video highlight of the books contents at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeIZSBdKv7I .

Bell initiated development on the Huey in 1952 as the Model 204. The XH-40 prototype first flew on October 20, 1956 and its descendants continue to fly in active service around the world. More than 16,000 have been built with over thirty US Military variants alone. The Huey has also been built under license in Germany, Italy, Japan, and Taiwan. The Huey’s Vietnam War action made it legendary as it appeared on news reports back home on the evening news.

David Doyle starts with an introduction covering the Huey development from the three prototypes, XH-40, with well captioned photographs. The six YH-40 evaluation and service evaluation airframes followed. Production airframes were initially designated HU-1A which led to the now familiar ‘Huey’ nickname. The change to UH-1 was part of the re-designations that occurred in 1962 to standardize aircraft designations. Illustrator Vincenzo Auletta, provides line profiles to describe the Huey development. David follows with the evolution of the Huey from the UH-1A to today’s UH-1Y Venom. The final chapter, Hueys in Action, starts with a UH-1A with a XM5 Armament Subsystem installed, the precursor to the UH-1C Huey Hog, before jumping into the Huey’s entry into the Vietnam War. David Doyle uses a nice selection of mainly color photographs to continue to describe the Huey’s action all the way up to a Marine UH-1Y at Camp Pendleton in 2016.

The Table of Contents includes the following:

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction [Page 7]
• Specifications (Table)
• UH-1 Huey Development
• UH-1 Huey Evolution [Page 18, 34]
• Hueys In Action [Page 53, 66, 75]

This is a gorgeous soft-bound book and is well worth the money. David Doyle provides lots of detailed photographs with detailed captions. I’ve always enjoyed Squadron’s In Action format as their line drawings focus on the differences from variant to variant, making it easy to spot the different versions in the period black and white or color photographs. I especially enjoyed the clear photographs of the XH-40 prototypes that allows one to see the changes that were implemented on the first three airframes.

Highly recommended!

My thanks to David Doyle Books at (www.DavidDoyleBooks.com ) and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great book.