Pictorial

Fly Now!: The Poster Collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum draws more visitors than any other museum in the world—90,000 a day in the summertime—and the highlight of summer 2007 at the NASM will be "Fly Now," the exhibit of air travel posters featured in this unique companion volume which combines arresting, colorful art, rare archival material, and a unique approach to aeronautical history.

The posters—most of them never before published—feature barnstormers, gliders, and flying boats; the earliest passenger flights, the first luxury-liners, mail carriers, jets, and much more. Spanning a century and a half, they combine the popular art and the commerce of their eras, with both explored in the entertaining, informative text by a longstanding National Air and Space Museum curator. From 19th-century circus impresarios offering rides in gaudy hot-air balloons to the sleek 21st-century airliners, they offer a fascinating illustrated history of flight as it evolved from an exotic realm inhabited only by visionaries and daredevils into our modern world of speedy jets and frequent flyers—no longer extraordinary, perhaps, but still echoing with the exhilarating thrill and glamorous excitement captured here.

Countless visitors to the museumÕs traveling poster exhibition and the permanent exhibition "America by Air" will delight in the gorgeous and wonderful graphics collected in this appealing, affordable book—and so will aviation buffs, armchair travelers, and poster connoisseurs everywhere.

Lock On No. 16 - Mi-24W Hind E Gunship

Lock On No. 13 - AH-64A Apache Attack Helicopter

This thirteenth installment in the popular LOCK ON series focuses on the AH-64A Apache attack helicopter of the U.S. Army. Stunning full color photography captures the details and characteristics of this powerful weapon, all accompanied by highly informative captions. Some of the details covered include the cockpit, engines, hellfire missiles, avionics, sensors, the M-230E1 30mm machine gun, and full airframe coverage. This comprehensive manual will satisfy not only scale modelers, but also military veterans and aviation enthusiasts.

Superdioramas

soft cover
44 pages
1 gatefold
74 full color photographs

With a very suitable title, this book highlights the work of two very accomplished and ambitious modelers, Lewis Pruneau and Bob Letterman, both of which were inspired and befriended by Francois Verlinden early in his career. Francois immediately published this first book dedicated to their work in order to introduce them to the rest of the scale modeling community. The book focuses on only three pieces of their work, but in reality a book could easily have been made for each of these massive pieces. The first piece, entitled The Paris Gun, is a 1:35 scale monster of a German railroad mounted gun built from scratch by Lewis Pruneau. Depicted in a diorama as it appeared during construction in the factory, this piece is comprehensively detailed from every side to a very high level of realism. The next piece, also by Lewis, is of a dry-docked German experimental U-Boat undergoing maintenance. Again, the entire piece is built from scratch, with many photographs taken during construction. This piece truly illustrates the talents of this bold modeler. The final article focuses on a miniature city in 1:35 scale by Bob Letterman. Depicting a French city undergoing liberation from the Germans by Pattons forces during WWII, it truly must be seen to be believed. Although the main theme is clearly shown in the form of U.S. Army convoys moving past columns of German P.O.W.s in the city, seemingly countless details can be seen, from individual vignettes on street corners, to different European architectural styles. This book is a must for every modeler, artist, military enthusiast, and history buff.

Lock On No. 14 - USS Forrestal "Gateway to the Danger Zone"

This special fourteenth edition of the phenomenal LOCK ON series takes us aboard the mighty U.S.N aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. Crammed with stunning full color photography, this book focuses on actual air operations in the Mediterranean Sea in the early nineties, making this a unique opportunity to see the U.S.A.s Big stick in action. Beautiful full color photography captures cutting edge U.S.N. Aircraft in action, such as the F 14 Tomcat, the F-18 Hornet, the A-6 Intruder, The EA-6B Prowler, the S-3B Viking, as well as the men and equipment used to keep the operations moving. This very attractive and in-depth book belongs in the collection of any aviation enthusiast, scale modeler, or USN veteran.

Lock On No. 21 - Mikoyan MiG 21 MF Fishbed

This twenty first installment in the popular LOCK ON series focuses on the Soviet-built Mikoyan MiG-21 MF Fishbed. In service with about 40 different air forces around the world, the MiG-21 Fishbed reached an astonishing production level of some 7500, supplying the Warsaw Pact and its allies with what became the standard military fighter aircraft of its time. Stunning full color photography captures such details as cockpit, landing gear, avionics, radar, internal cannon, external weapons and pylons, speed brakes, ejection seat, engine, parabrake housing, ground service equipment, pilots, mechanics, and much more of this enigmatic aircraft. This book provides a very rare and in-depth view of this cold war veteran, and belongs in the collections of scale modelers, aviation enthusiasts, and cold war veterans.

The Vital Guide to Commercial Aircraft and Airliners: The World's Current Major Civil Aircraft

Lock On No. 20 - Grumman A-6E, KA-6D Intruder, EA-6B Prowler

This twentieth installment in the popular LOCK ON series focuses on the lines and details of the USN A-6E, KA-6D Intruder, and EA-6B Prowler built by Grumman. Stunning full color photography captures such details as the cockpits, landing gear, airframe, engines, wing-folds, flaps, slats, external tanks and pods, air brakes, and general carrier operations of this aging but potent aircraft. This book belongs in the collections of scale modelers, aviation enthusiasts, and USN veterans.

Lock On No. 19 - Mikoyan MiG 29 A/C Fulcrum

Lock On No. 24 - Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress

This 24th installment in the popular LOCK ON series deals with the world famous Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress of WWII vintage. The B-17G of the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, England, was meticulously photographed in all of its splendor for this fine publication. All of the details are well documented, such as the cockpit, bombardier/navigator station, ball turret, waist-gunners station, bomb bay, landing gear, tail gunners station, and various external airframe details. This book belongs in the collection of every scale modeler, as well as history buffs, military and aviation enthusiasts, and WWII veterans.