Soviet Air Power; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Warsaw Pact Air Forces Today [from DJ front panel]

London: Chartwell Books, Inc. [A Salamander Book], 1978. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. Format is approximately 8.75 inches by 12.25 inches. 192 pages. Illustrations (Maps. Graphics. Superb color three-views. Two 8 pages fold-outs. Color illustrations throughout). Technical Directory. Aircraft Designations. Glossary. Index. DJ has wear and some soiling. Name of previous owner written in ink on fep. Foreword by J. W. R Taylor. Bill Sweetman (born 1956) is a former editor for Jane's and currently an editor for Aviation Week group. He is a writer of more than 50 books on military aircraft. He is noted for his dogged pursuit of the Aurora project. He appeared as an Aerospace Consultant on in the Nova PBS TV program "Battle of the X-Planes" about the Joint Strike Fighter Program. Bill Gunston OBE, FRAeS (1 March 1927 - 1 June 2013) was a British aviation and military author. He flew with Britain's Royal Air Force from 1943 to 1948, and was a flying instructor. He spent most of his adult life doing research and writing on aircraft and aviation. He joined the staff of Flight International magazine, where, writing as "W.T.G.", he was appointed Technical Editor in April 1955. From 1969, he was part of the production team on the annual publication Jane's All the World's Aircraft. He was the author of over 350 books and articles. His work included many books published by Salamander Books. This work considers the relative air power strengths and weaknesses of the Eastern bloc and Western powers, and examines the individual air forces of the Warsaw Pact countries with a complete color catalog of their aircraft. John William Ransom Taylor, OBE Hon DEng FRAeS FRHistS AFIAA, (8 June 1922 - 12 December 1999) was a British aviation expert and editor. He edited Jane's All the World's Aircraft for three decades during the Cold War. He retired as editor in 1989, just as the Iron Curtain obscuring the Soviet Bloc's technology started to lift. Taylor was a master of a parallel art to Kremlinology, he could deduce the performance of Soviet military equipment from blurred photographs. "Thus in 1961, when Western intelligence was fascinated by early glimpses of a new Soviet bomber, the Tupolev Tu-22, many analysts estimated it could reach a speed of Mach 2.5 - more than twice the speed of sound. But Taylor, after noting the shape of the aircraft's engine intakes, put the maximum at no more than Mach 1.4, which proved much closer to the truth. In 1983, he analyzed the MiG-29 fighter, whose agility was the cause of much anxiety amongst NATO's war-gamers; seven years later, when Jane's was able to check his suggested measurements, they were found to be accurate to within an inch. " The Guardian, Tuesday 25 January 2000. Taylor joined Hawker Aircraft in 1941. There he worked on the development of the Hurricane fighter and its successors. His specialization was rectifying design defects. He joined Jane's as editorial assistant on Jane's All the World's Aircraft in 1955 and four years later he took over as editor. Taylor noted that "In the entire history of mankind, there has never been a military machine as mighty as the integrated air and rocket forces now available to the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies."