50%
Dzerzhyns’k 
Early US Jet Fighters: Proposals, Projects and Prototypes
by Tony Buttler, 176 pp., Hikoki Publications, 2013
The evolution of fighters during what has become known as the “first generation” of jet aircraft has always held a particular fascination. The period was akin to those heady days of the golden age of aviation between the World Wars when aviation progressed from stick-and-fabric biplanes to streamlined aluminum monoplanes. This second great leap saw huge strides made in even slipperier aerodynamics and engine power output that pushed planes and pilots beyond the sound barrier.
Tony Buttler’s recent offering, Early US Jet Fighters: Proposals, Projects and Prototypes, is an attempt to fill some of the gaps in the literature of the period. His credentials for ferreting out early and unknown aviation programs has been well established with his “Secret Projects” series on British, German, American, and Soviet air forces. This book, however, isn’t in keeping with its forebears.
Fifty percent appears to be its watchword.
On the surface, Early US Jet Fighters is impressive. The photographs and graphics easily account for more than 50 percent of its 205 pages. Of those photographs, perhaps 50 percent are new (to this reviewer). Of the illustrations—line art, and 3-view, manufacturers’, and specially made profile drawings—50 percent are worth viewing. The size and reproductive and artistic qualities of the balance make one wonder why they were included at all. The text—which is why one would purchase the book in the first place and also should be the glue holding the half of the book that is art to a context—is about 50 percent there. In a number of entries, 50 percent or more of the text consists of statistics with little substantive narrative.
It is literally half the book it should have been.
Reviewed May 2014
