Grumman Reviews

Jon Lake who is one of the most authoritative avaition researchers today has put together the most complete book on the F-14. This has all the information needed, from the preliminary designs, to the units served, to its combat record, the information is presented accurately and concisely. I have been a Tomcat fan for many years and I have had the opportunity to read quite a few books on the F-14, but this is by far the best book I have read. A must for any aviation collection. Another book to complement this book would be Tomcat Alley by David F. Brown, which has over 700 images and is purely a pictorial guide of all the F-14 aircraft built.

After reading many books on military hardware, this book is easy to read and informative. A must have for any F-14 fan. I learned a great deal about an aircraft that I considered myself as knowledgeable. A must buy.

This book is published by the same published who published World Air Power and Wings of Fame journals. Part of the pages of this book came from the articles printed on World Air Power before.

World Air Power journal is a high quality military journal with excellent photos. This book has all the excellent quality from the journal plus new materials including the 1991 gulf war.

F-14 is a legend not only to Navy, but to all of the fighters current in service. There are some books in this field, but with latest information, this is the book to read.

This is a must have book for the Tomcat lover. Not only does it list all the aircraft Bureau numbers, it has over 700 photos to compliment every aircraft. David Brown has gone extensive lengths to bring us EVERY Tomcat made with a brief description of each aircraft and their current status. The Iranian Tomcat photos in their desert camouflage schemes are a special treat, considering the difficulty in obtaining them. Of particular significance are the squadron patches of every squadron; active or disbanded, east or west coast. The book is a bit pricey, but well worth it.

Tomcat Alley is in a word, outstanding! As a former F-14 pilot and military photo enthusiast, I found this publication fantastically complete in its inclusion of every F-14 aircraft ever made and the subsequent dispositions of these aircraft as they either continue their services lives or have retired. Anyone who is doing research on a particular USN F-14 by bureau number will find this book invaluable; those who are interested in the F-14 on a more casual basis will find the book equally entertaining. It's a MUST HAVE publication!

In compiling a complete pictorial accounting of the US Navy's quintessential fighter plane, author Brown and editors Lebaron and Kaston have created a treatment of the F-14 that is as enjoyable and readable as it was exhaustively researched. In the increasingly crowded field of popular military aviation literature, Tomcat Alley is unique in that it will equally engage the historian, the airplane buff, and -- of course -- the F-14 enthusiast. Tomcat Alley sets the bar for all future aviation 'roll-call'-style references. Well done!

I think this book will be an excellent addition to your library. Very detailed.

Volume 33 in the outstanding Speciality Press "Warbird Tech" series, Grumman A-6 Intruder by military aviation expert Dennis R. Jenkins presents just about everything there is to know about this impressive military aircraft designed expressly for all-weather aerial attacks. Black-and-white photographs, as well as a brief color section pepper this descriptive manual showcasing the history, technical details, manufacture and use of these rugged fighter planes. Grumman A-6 Intruder is a welcome and recommended addition to any military aviation reference collection.

As the previous reviewer noted, the book was published in 1975 and the F-14 was still in infancy. The information presented is pretty sensitivity as it is very hard to find the actual performance data on this aircraft even though the F-14 is 30 years old! Lots of money were spent on that swing wing design.

The book continues on about the inner workings of the F-14A and a little about the F-14B with the proposed engines. Excellent reference book.

This book was published in 1975. At the time, the F-14 is brand new, just reaching the fleet and it is without a doubt the most advanced fighter ever created. All of the Tomcat's advantages over its predecessor (the F-4J) and its Soviet adversaries (MiG-23, -21, -19, at the time) are explained in detail including the bubble canopy, weapons system, and untouched maneuverability. All of the aircraft systems are explained in detail with extra emphasis placed on the functioning of the AWG-9 radar. Though the book is very old, it contains information not found in other books. It's a great old book if you can find it!

Verlinden's Lock On No. 18 is by far the best reference book I have come across regarding the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. Most of the photos were taken aboard the U.S.S. Forrestal and follow the carrier operations of VF-31 "Tomcatters" and VF-11 "The Red Rippers". There are nearly 100 color photographs throughout the book detailing every aspect of this plane from nose to tail, including on-board computer systems, weapons systems, landing gear, powerplants, and several pages alone dedicated to the cockpit interior. If you are in need of reference material for model building or if you just have an interest in navy combat aircraft this would be a great book to have.

When Grumman's Bob Kress designed the F-14 he created a legend. This book describes it from genesis to today, covering every significant development and deployment. The book is remarkable not only because of the authoritative detail but because Gillcrist is so candid. He's sometimes biased and doesn't mind admitting it--but he always back up a controversial opinion with facts. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in air warfare and naval aviation. The pictures are terrific, though only 'blanket' credited when unofficial. But you'll see the great work of 'Heater' Heatley--nuff said!

This book does a great job on exploring the introduction of the Tomcat, and it's origins. It goes into depth about the techinical capablities and specificiations of the book. The author continues to give great details about the program and it's construction. The only bad part is that it's 200 pages long and 50 bucks. Over all, it's a great book to read if your an avid Tomcat fan like I am.

Mr. Baker finally has created something what I am looking for! And that's someting very explicit about the F-14. He goes indepth with the history of the F-14 and how it was designed, tested and production. He even gives descriptions of the USN squadrons that have used the F-14. The books explains mostly about the Alpha model but the B model is also given. It lacks some information about the latest D model though.

If you are F-14 buff this book is worth every penny in gold. Don't be intimidated by the 200pages.

For a book on the fleet defender that is approaching thirty years of service, a book of 88 pages is certainly insufficient. The author has made a good balance of every aspect of the aircraft to condense the materials in order to fit in the limited space. The result is --- a good book for general readers. Scale modellers may be disappointed for its lack of detail shots of different parts of the Tomcat (supplied in abundance in the old Aerofax series) and its lack of scale plans. Warplane enthusiast may not be satisfied by the black and white photos. However, I must commend on the concise unit hishory the detail written descriptions on the different variants.

Limited by its size, it comes second to the "Grumman F-14 Tomcat--Shipborne superfighter" from Aerospace in depth, number of illustrations and drawings; it gives no match to "Tomcat Alley" of Schiffer Publishing Ltd which offers photographic coverage of each unit that has flown the Cat. However, as a book for general reader and justified by its size, it is readable and informative and worths a place in the collection of even Tomcat-freaks.

This is your typical Aerofax book, with lots of good details on the history of the Tomcat and many photos showing almost every detail of the airplane. It is a bit light on the operational history, and is also a bit out of date. Nevertheless, it is a bargain for the money. Highly recommended!

Granted the book is limited in its scope since it is only 88 pages long but ,typical of the Aerofax books in general, a lot of information is presented in a readable fashion. There are many photos tracing the aircraft's development and service history. Detail shots are provided in abundance, although perhaps not enough to actually build an F-14 for yourself. Overall this is an excellant book on the Tomcat that provides sufficient information for most enthusiasts.

The author tries to write in a "conversational" style, but it comes across only as bad writing. Also, the author occasionally contradicts himself, but I think this is due more to bad writing than conflicting information.

However, the author did a decent job of gathering a fair amount of non-classified information, and the book has an excellent collection of photos.

Despite the poor writing, the book is interesting and provides an adequate overview, and I would recommend it to anyone curious about the B-2

This is the most informative and detailed book there is. The photos are amazing and very graphic. This book is 5 out of 5 stars any day. I urge you to buy this book. Now I know almost everything to know about the B-2. Thank You.

As with all photobooks by Michael O'Leary in the Osprey series, you get 128 pages of colour photographs, ranging from plain good to breathtakingly good. The only dissapointment for me in this book was the mistake to name the Bearcat by its right name, naming it F8F Wildcat, but that is the only thing I found that I didn't like. The book gives an excellent full colour overview of all Grumman survivors that served in WW2, up to and including the 'Duck' in the paragraph 'Turkeys and Waterfowl'
As with other Michael O'Leary books in this series the focus is on photographs of surviving planes, all taken by Michael O'Leary himself, so don't expect to see original WW2 colour photographs or some Korean ones for that sake.