From Italy versus the Ottomans in the years before World War One, to the 'War on Terror' and two pages on Ukraine, this updated edition of a 2019 title suitably takes us through airborne militarism. It had actually started long before those Italians, with much success at monitoring artillery activity from look-out balloons, allowing combatants to have a bird's-eye view of the battlefield for the first time. This is woven into a general introduction to the history of powered flight for mankind, after which we get the warfare as expected.

As expected, too, this being an Amber book, there is a strong pictorial presence. We get hosts of vintage imagery, schematics of all the key planes, and maps designed by the authors themselves to show the thrusts and flights concerned. These are pretty thorough, yet decently clear and understandable – the military historian will be able to see what's what very happily. And despite all of that, and the full image captions as expected, there is a full-length narrative to be had here, too, as we seamlessly progress through the century and more under scrutiny.

OK, I didn't read every page – for some reason several in my digital review copy were corrupted anyway. But I certainly experienced enough to know this is a quality effort, both thorough and readable, and going some way to being a definitive volume, especially for all but the most niche specialism. Four and a half stars.

This was just a fascinating look at how air warfare has changed over the years and in different conflicts. I especially loved the maps showing the different routes planes would take and the stories about special pilots-- there was almost a mythology around particularly talented pilots which helped raise morale but then caused great grief if they were shot down.

picked this up out of curiosity about how air combat has changed over time—and honestly, it’s a great little gem if you're into history