American Military Aircraft

Detailed features on more than 200 of America’s finest fighting aircraft
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More than 3,000 color and black-and-white photographs and artworks • Unique graphics allow instant comparison between performance of similar aircraft types • Includes full dimensions, weights, performance, and armament of each aircraft •
The United States of America was one of the first nations to explore the use of heavier-than-air craft for military purposes. The U.S. Army tested a Wright biplane in 1908, and procured its very first aircraft (another Wright) for $25,000 in 1909. The most sophisticated U.S. warplane flying today, the B-2 Spirit, costs around a hundred thousand times as much as that first aircraft. Although at the outbreak of World War II the majority of U.S. warplanes were outdated types, between 1941 and 1945 American military air power was forged into the mightiest war machine the world has ever seen. Under the pressure of war, the United States progressed from the biplane era to an immensely complex bomber—the Boeing B-29—capable of delivering the atomic bomb. The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps retained their technological superiority through the dangerous years of the Cold War, an era that prompted the development of ever more complex and specialized aircraft. The next generation of aircraft and weapons, with the emphasis on flexibility and affordability, have proven their worth in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Iraq.American Military Aircraft is a comprehensive guide to more than 200 combat aircraft and helicopters which have kept the U.S. at the cutting edge of aviation technology. Each aircraft is covered in detail, with feature boxes outlining its development, specifications, performance data, and variants. Unique graphics allow the reader to compare specific features like firepower, troop-carrying capacity, and bombload to those of other aircraft of the same type.