Air Force

This is a lavishly illustrated but somewhat perfunctory history of perhaps the most glamorous of the Armed Forces. The essays here, written by academics and military officers in the inelegant style of a Pentagon press briefing, follow the Air Force as it evolved from biplanes to ballistic missiles, and cover air campaigns from World War II through Operation Enduring Freedom. The articles are evasive, and can be a bit dull; administrative reshufflings are extensively covered, for example, but the fierce controversies surrounding the doctrine of strategic bombing and the Air Force's leveling of cities from Hiroshima to Hanoi get short shrift. Armchair aces will be somewhat disappointed by the focus on institutional history, which keeps the narrative more often at headquarters than in the cockpit. The few combat vignettes are perfunctory, and more attention is given to the development of mid-air refueling than to dog-fighting tactics. And while the book includes many full-color reproductions of sleek warplanes, the technical data-the details of speed, climb rate, payload and armament that entrance fetishists-is skimpy and badly organized. This tome is impressive looking, but may fail to satisfy either the historically minded reader or the military aviation buff.