Military Aircraft of the 1970s

By Gerry Manning
Midland Publishing, ©2008
ISBN 978-1-85780-263-4
Softbound, 144 Pages
Available from Specialty Press for $36.95

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

Previously, the author put out a book titled Military Aircraft of the 1960s. At the time, I wondered if we would see other decades covered, and indeed that seems to be the case. This newest title moves forward ten years to the 1970s, and like the previous title, the coverage is vast. Some aircraft get more coverage than others, and that is understandable as home field advantage definitely comes into play. It is not easy to photograph, say, Su-15s without access to Soviet military airfields (and during the 1970s, that would have been very unlikely to happen). Still, the subjects are extensive, and the quality is excellent.

The index provides an alphabetical listing of all the aircraft covered, and it is over 160 different types. Most of these only get a single photo, while some (like the BAC Lightning or McDonnell Douglas Phantom) have page after page of photos (the Lightning gets ten pages, and the Phantom eleven!). Other aircraft include the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, Boeing-Vertol CH-47 Chinook, Dassault Etendard, Lockheed SP-2 Neptune, Vickers Valetta, Grumman A-6 Intruder, and a whole bevy of Westland helicopters, including the Gazelle, Lynx, and Wasp. Small manufacturers are also covered, such as Saab with their Draken and Viggen and Folland with their Gnat. In terms of photo layout, there are never more than three photos to a page, so you can make out quite a bit of detail in each shot. Some are flying shots, while others are on the ground, balancing the presentation nicely.

For a photo documentary of military aircraft of the 1970s, this book does a fairly decent job for the United States and Europe. While Asia, Africa, and South America are pretty much absent from this book, aside from Soviet aircraft those regions all flew similar types presented here. As such, this is a decent general reference and would fit well on any reference shelf. Now let’s see the title on military aircraft of the 1950s! My thanks to Specialty Press for the review copy.