Fighting Firsts: Fighter Aircraft Combat Debuts from 1914-44

The first aerial victory scored in a Fokker Triplane was achieved by Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Then and ever since, it was the pilot's skill that determined how well an aircraft performed: results were not always in direct relation to the aeroplane's capabilities. Some machines offered such power, speed and versatility that they could hardly fail - the Japanese Zero, for example. But others had to be coaxed to the limit in even the simplest engagement, while some just never made the grade. This is a book about beginnings, some more famous than others, and about the men who took new aircraft into combat for the first time. Aircraft reputations were often cruel and slow in the making, and the author looks behind those reputations to discover the truth about the introduction and later development of many familiar names. The book includes cockpit accounts of aerial combat techniques, always changing to match the power and technology available, and features - amony many aircraft - such stalwarts as the Sopwith F.I Camel, 1917; the Fiat C.R.3 2, 1936; the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire, 1939-40; the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, 1942; and the Grumman F6F Hellcat, 1943.