Military Model Scene

Title: Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe
Author: Dan Sharp
Publisher: Tempest Books
ISBN: 978-1-911703-28-0

A 130-page soft-cover bookazine format title is the latest on the topic of various wartime aircraft developments from author Dan Sharp.
In this one there are a number of stories, mostly relating to late war designs, but by no means all. It amazes me just how much material is still emerging from documents captured at the end of WW2. This relies on original German language source material, and includes a large number of original design plans. Equally nice though is to see that in this book, those plans have been reproduced in larger size, so making them easier to see the detail they contain. There are 7 main sections in this one, and they include the Focke-Wulf designs for fighters built around heavier bomber engines. Staying with Focke-Wulf, their Fw 187 design from the 1930s was halted, but then went back into development during the war. Heavy fighters, a Messerschmitt design for a 'Schnellbomber' then something quite different, the Blohm & Voss BV40, a small glider with a prone flying position for the pilot. Variations see it with armament, with engines, and as a guided weapon that could have been used against allied ships, to be air launched from He 177 carrier aircraft. Unlike some of the other designs, there were 14 prototypes that were actually built, though they were all destroyed in an air raid. There are more, and the assortment of drawings show the numerous changes that aviation development ideas went through.
I've had my interest in aviation for some 60 years and this is another book which shows just how much more there is still for me to learn. As a modeller I am aware of many kits now available for a variety of the late war Luftwaffe designs, but this original archive material shows just how much more there is to the subject. Very good value in the bookazine format and I am a fan of how author Dan Sharp shares his research with the rest of us.
Thanks to Tempest Books for the review copy.

Robin