Detailed developmental and operational history of the first USAF dedicated all-weather, jet-powered interceptor. It also features the colorful paint schemes applied to F-89s, which should appeal to both modelers and historians.

The Lockheed P-80/F-80 Shooting Star was the first American operational jet fighter. David McLarens new book chronicles the development and early trials of the aircraft during Lockheeds groundbreaking attempts to create a viable jet fighter, in a period when jet propulsion was still an innovative unknown. This period also saw engineers and test pilots like Kelly Johnson and Tony LeVier facing many challenges, incidents and accidents as they attempted to create a new fighter from yet untested aerodynamic theories, and engines that were still under development. Also discussed are the record breaking transcontinental and absoulte speed records set by the Shooting Star. Detailed analysis of the Shooting Stars combat record in Korea shows why the F-80 flew more combat missions than any aircraft in the war theater. Also presented is a summation of all USAF, USAFR, and foreign countries that flew the P-80/F-80. David McLaren is also the author of Lockheed F-94 Starfire(with Marty Isham), and Beware the Thunderbolt!: The 56th Fighter Group in World War II (both titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

The first U.S. night/all-weather fighter aircraft is chronicled, as is its use by Air Defense Command, Continental Air Command, Alaska and others.

With names like Zemke, Schilling, Gabreski, Mahurin and Johnson, the 56th Fighter Group was, and still is, one of the legendary fighter units of World War II.\nBEWARE THE THUNDERBOLT ( the apt official motto of the 56th) is the story of the 56th Fighter Group in a chronological narrative of their combat missions. Composed of heroic pilots that aggressively took the air war into the enemy heartland in 1943, the "Wolfpack\s" P-47 Thunderbolt contrails crossed high in the upper stratosphere as they escorted heavy bomber missions, or fell upon the enemy on the ground as their pilots destroyed over 1000 Luftwaffe aircraft.\nThe story is also coupled with their post-war history of innovative Mustang missions to Alaska, and the first trans-Atlantic jet fighter missions in the P-80 Shooting Star.\nThe foreword is by Hub Zemke, former commander of the 56th Fighter Group. \nDavid McLaren is also the author of Lockheed F-94 Starfire (with Marty Isham), available from Schiffer Publishing.

Mustangs Over Korea is a documentary history of one of the most famous fighters ever built during a historically almost unrecognized war. Flown by four air forces in support of the United Nations, the F-51 Mustang dropped more napalm and fired more rockets than any other aircraft during that conflict - and in the process suffered the highest number of losses. Told is the story of the bravery of the fighter-bomber pilots in the serious air-to-mud war against horrendous anti-aircraft fire, and also the first swirling air battles against the vaunted MiG-15.