Aviation Workshop
On Target Special

“Wings Of Stars”
US Army Air Corps 1919-1941

by Peter Freeman and Mike Starmer

Reviewed by Mick Evans

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This new publication from The Aviation Workshop is in this publisher’s usual glossy A4 size format and contains 82 pages of exceptional detail.  The text is supplied in both English and the quality of paper and printing is excellent.  The publication contains many colour profiles of US Army Corps aircraft during the period between WWI and WWII.

Aircraft detailed include:

Captured Fokker DVII                                                Curtis Y1A-8 Shrike
Nieuport 28                                                                        Curtis A-12 Shrike
SPAD XIII                                                                        Consolidated PB-2A
S.E.5E                                                                                    Boeing Stearman PT-13
Boeing Built DH-4M                                                            North American BT-9/A/C
Curtis JN-4D                                                                        North American BC-1
Captured LFG Roland D VI                                                North American BT-14
Thomas Morse MB-3                                                            North American AT-6
Boeing MB-3A                                                            Seversky P-35
Curtis PW-8                                                                        Northrop A-17
Boeing PW9C/D                                                            Curtis P36A/B/C
Curtis 0-1C Falcon                                                            North American 0-47
Curtis A-3B/E/G                                                            Stinson 0-49 Vigilant
Douglas 0-2/H/D                                                            Piper J-3C Grasshopper
Curtis AT-4 Hawk                                                            Lockheed P-38
Curtis P-1A/B/C/E Hawk                                                Bell P-39
Consolidated XPT-3                                                            Curtis P-40B/C/E
Consolidated 0-17                                                            North American XP-51
Consolidated PT-3
Boeing P-12B/C/D/E
Thomas Morse 0-19C/E
Douglas 0-25A/C
Douglas 0-38A/B/E
Boeing P-26A/B

Some of my favorite pre WWII US Army schemes are depicted these being the bright yellow wings with either the blue or green fuselage with the flashy red and white striped rudders.  For me this era of colour schemes are so bright and colourful akin to something that you would expect to see in a circus rather than a defence force in particular where you are trying to hide through camouflage rather than advertise your presence with bright splashes of colour.  The 1920s and 1930s were safe years for the United States and the aircraft colour schemes represented this, but the as the war in Europe starts to cast its shadows across the Atlantic ocean and Japan starts to flex its muscles in Indo-China the bright colours start to turn to the duller camouflage schemes from about 1939 onwards.

 Each profile has a brief text description of the aircraft and the final page contains the colour chips as a key to the profiles and describes the Federal Standard No 595A colours. 

A nice follow on to this book would be some very nice decals for some of the aircraft depicted in the profiles, one can wish. 

This is an excellent publication from the guys at The Aviation Workshop and one that I certainly have enjoyed reading.

Thanks to The Aviation Workshop  for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2010 by Mick Evans
This Page Created on 15 March, 2010
Last updated 15 March, 2010

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