Jets of the World

New York: Coward-McCann, Inc, 1952. Third printing [stated]. Hardcover. Poor/as is. The format is approximately 9.125 inches by 6.5 inches. 62 pages. Illustrations. Cover has wear and soiling. Spine missing. Front and back boards weak/loose due to loss of spine. Decorative cover. Ink marks inside front cover. Covers Fighters, Bombers, and Transports from some NATO countries, Russia, Argentina and Sweden. Carroll Burleigh Colby (September 7, 1904 - October 31, 1977) was an American writer, primarily of nonfiction books. He wrote more than 100 books that were widely circulated in libraries in the United States. Colby sold his first story in 1929. Learning to fly glider aircraft in 1931, Colby began writing and illustrating articles for various aviation magazines, becoming an editor of Air Trails and Air Progress magazines that were Street & Smith publications. He co-authored the Junior Birdmen Standard Aviation Dictionary for the Junior Birdmen of America. In 1943 he became aviation editor of Popular Science magazine and became a war correspondent with the U.S. Army Air Forces in Newfoundland, Labrador, and Alaska. He left the magazine in 1946. Colby enlisted and served as an officer with the Civil Air Patrol. Colby's first book was early in 1951 as by "Carroll Colby": Gabbit, the Magic Rabbit, a self-illustrated picture book about a magician's rabbit who turns the tables. He began his non-fiction book writing with Our Fighting Jets in 1951. He specialized in outdoor subjects such as hunting, fishing, camping, and firearms. Many of his books were about military and public safety organizations or new technology, designed to be understood by the general public. This book is designed to inform the reader of what the leaders in jet aircraft design, the world over, are doing. Only a few countries are actually engaged in the development of jet-powered aircraft, even thought many of those not so engaged use jet aircraft obtained beyond their boundaries. Gathering such material is difficult because of international security agreements and "iron curtains." The problems of obtaining illustrations and data on "certain" jet aircraft, for example, are obvious. Even thought much more is known about them and can be included in this book for security reasons, there is even then but limited data that can be relied upon to be entirely accurate. In other cases reciprocal international security agreement require that 'estimates' rather than actual figures be given. These estimated performance figures and dimensions are presented for the reader's interest, and while they may be on the minimum side of the actual, they will serve as a basis for intelligence speculation. Also, in a book of this size, it is impossible to include all of the types under present construction. therefore the author has based the selection upon design interest, the availability of good illustrations, and the amount of data that can be obtained and included. The aircraft included, the author believed, would give the reader a well-rounded and unusually complete picture of the Jets of the World at the time of publication.