My New Book: Hidden Warbirds

[kidjim25]

looking forward to reading all of it myself. (we've been passing it around the shop reading and rereading the xc-108 chapter of course )
looks great though!

Great Job

[Jerry O'Neill]

Mine came yesterday! Looks like a good read!!!!
(It's fun when you actually know some of those involved in some of the stories!)

[ACarey]

Looking forward to reading it.

[TonyM]

My copy came yesterday. Will start on it today.

Last edited by TonyM on Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Scott Rose]

Wanted to put out a note of thanks to the more than 100 warbirders who helped with my new book Hidden Warbids: The Epic Stories of Finding, Recovering, and Rebuilding WWII’s Lost Aircraft.

It was published by Zenith Press last week and is available at Amazon for 36-percent off the $29.95 cover price.*

• Note that as an Amazon partner, WIX will get a percentage of the book sales if you click on the Amazon box at the top right of most WIX pages and purchase your copy directly after entering the Amazon site.

Thanks for pointing that Out Nick, and apparently some of the WIXers are listening since from July 1 to July 6 they have purchased 14 copies of your book (13 physical and 1 Kindle edition). I especially like the kindle sale since in my day job I run the prototyping lab for the company that invented the Kindle display technology.

I am currently working on a revue for this book (I must say I loved the book) and I will post a link here when it is finished.

Follow this link,
Hidden Warbirds: The Epic Stories of Finding, Recovering, and Rebuilding WWII's Lost Aircraft to purchase the book from Amazon. Doing so helps out the site and obviously Nick as well.

Using the links on WIX or elsewhere on the site to make the Amazon purchases you were going to make anyways really does help the site. So please consider using the links when you use Amazon. Thanks.

[warbirdfinder]

Does it cover the 40+ warbirds brought out of Russia between 1993 and 2004 by Jim Pearce and Mike Walton?

[turretguy]

Warbirdfinder,
Keep in mind that a book can't be all things to all people, but "Hidden Warbirds" covers a lot of territory -- and yes, Jim Pearce and one of his Bf-109 recoveries are mentioned.

Thanks for your interest. Hope you enjoy the book.
Nick

[Mike]

An interesting read Nick. I suppose the only slight disappointment to me is that it is presented very much from a US perspective. The Russian recoveries, as has been mentioned, hardly get a look in, nor do the aircraft recovered in the 1970s from Israel, India, etc. I appreciate that this is because you are based in the US, but it does rather give the impression that nobody else is doing anything in terms of recovery and restoration, wheras the reality is that nothing could be further from the truth!

Some fascinating stories have been missed, such as Peter Vacher's Battle of Britain veteran Hurricane, the Indian Tempests and Spitfires, the French Skyraiders from Africa, the Egyptian Yak 11s, so many more.

Whilst the book is full of great information and photos, I was a little saddened that it presents such a US-centric view of what has always been a worldwide topic.

[turretguy]

Mike,
Where the He!! are you nowadays? I haven't seen you at one of the Society for Aviation History (http://www.sfahistory.org) lunches in quite a while and I hear you've left the California sunshine for the other side of the Atlantic.

You do have a point that the book is U.S.-centric, however, Mike, since you're a friend I think it's time for a geography lesson -- Swamp Ghost and P-61 (recovered from New Guinea), Japanese aircraft recovered from Indonesia, Glacier Girl (Greenland), Marauders (Canada), Corsairs (Latin and South America), and Mustangs (Latin and South America) -- thus about half of the book deals with aircraft recovered from outside the United States!

Maybe not the recoveries you've cited, but the book is, in my opinion, well-balanced geographically.

Note that if the book sells well, then there may be a follow-on that covers more of the worldwide recoveries (but note that many important U.S. recoveries didn't make it into this book -- only for space considerations). That said there's still the problem of content. Getting quality images of some of these recoveries is, frankly, next to impossible. From the acknowledgements you'll see that more than 100 people gave generously of their time and photo collections to make "Hidden Warbirds" what it is. That alone says a lot about the book and the people who work to recover and preserve historic aircraft.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this book can't be all things to everyone for the simple fact that there's not enough real estate in 250 pages to cover every wreck ever recovered.

Why don't you PM me with your contact info and we can chat more off-line? I'd like to know what you have in your collection that could be used in the next book.

Since I'm collecting material for a follow-on book, I'd be happy to hear from WIXers who have good quality photos/scans they'd be willing to lend to a potential follow-on book.

Best,
Nick

[Mike]

Nick, your examples illustrate my point concerning recoveries perfectly. Every one you mention was made by Americans, to America.

A few more examples of some of the more unusual non-American recoveries: Hawker Hinds from Afghanistan (the first four in 1970s, and another batch more recently), and the Ro-37s recovered recently by the Italians from the same source. Robs Lamplough's recoveries in the 1970s (Bf109E from Spain, P-51s and Spitfires from Israel). The recent recovery by Guy Black of a pair of DH-9s from a fort in India.

Please don't take this as a criticism - I loved the book and I'm sure you had enough material from your US sources to fill it twice over. As I said, it is more a case of a missed opportunity to tell some of the stories that are going on around the rest of the world, not just centered around the US.

[Scott Rose]

I'm thinking its the perfect topic for volume 2

[JohnB]

Plenty of scope for a Vol. II.
The PV tanker 101 recovery as told here (update: it's in the book) or even the long, weird journey of the B-36 from Ft. Worth, via a couple of still born museums and the ambitious plan to fly it as a warbird.
Or the recent B-17 recovery from Labrador...even big stuff is still out there.
And don't forget helicopters.

Last edited by JohnB on Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Flying Pencil]

thanks for heads up!

[Dan Jones]

Got mine today. Good read!

Dan

[JohnB]

I just finished it. Well done.