American Experimental Fighters of WWII by Tony Buttler

"American Expt Fighters of WW2 has reached the warehouse. Must admit I am delighted with the production. I think it is the fattest and heaviest book I have ever produced - must be due to heavier paper!!!

And FYI - I have just started preparing the second edition of American Secret Projects: Jet Fighters 1950-1980."
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Tony Buttler


AVAILABLE NOW
During World War II, America's air arms fielded some superlative fighters such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, North American P-51 Mustang and Vought F4U Corsair. The large numbers of these excellent fighters produced by the US aircraft industry made a significant contribution to the eventual success of the Allies. However, even as the war was raging and the industry was working flat out to produce the huge numbers of aircraft required for front line duties, extensive research and development programmes were also being pursued to create the next generation of fighters. This book focuses on the aircraft generated by those programmes and provides a detailed survey of the fighter prototypes produced and flown during the period from 1940 to 1946, which, for various reasons, did not progress to production and service.

The work has twenty-four chapters that embrace the great diversity of design and layout of these prototypes. They demonstrate the remarkable creative flair that was present in the US aircraft industry during the war. There are designs of all shapes, sizes and configurations powered by piston, jet and mixed power plants. The designs encompassed various configurations including pusher layouts, swept and flying wings. Each of these prototypes is given its own chapter.

The book also reviews a selection of production fighter types that were kitted out for trials and used as test bed aircraft. A small number of unbuilt projects and studies are also included. The thoroughly researched text is complimented by a superb collection of photographs and illustrations.

For all of those interested in World War Two US aviation and the aircraft produced in its aftermath, this book will be a revelation. Written by Tony Buttler, one of our most distinguished aviation writers, it will be a must read for all modellers and students of aviation history in this era.

Product description​

ISBN: 9781800353107
Binding: Hardback
Dimensions: 297mm x 210mm
Pages: 296
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"A small number of unbuilt projects and studies are also included."

Any clue for those who already own any book published on the subject? Are we going to find anything new? It is possible to show the chapter index? In my case, the product description is not enough for a decision.

"And FYI - I have just started preparing the second edition of American Secret Projects: Jet Fighters 1950-1980."

Excellent news!!!!!
 
Chapter One Curtiss XP-46
Chapter Two Lockheed XP-49
Chapter Three Grumman XP-50 Skyrocket
Chapter Four North American XP-51 Lightweight Mustangs
Chapter Five Vultee XP-54 'Swoose Goose'
Chapter Six Curtiss XP-55 Ascender
Chapter Seven Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet
Chapter Eight Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning
Chapter Nine Curtiss XP-60 and XP-40Q
Chapter Ten Curtiss XP-62
Chapter Eleven McDonnell XP-67 Bat
Chapter Twelve Republic XP-47H, XP-47J and XP-72
Chapter Thirteen Hughes XF-11/XP-73/XA-37
Chapter Fourteen Fisher XP-75 Eagle
Chapter Fifteen Bell XP-77
Chapter Sixteen Northrop XP-79
Chapter Seventeen Convair XP-81
Chapter Eighteen Bell XP-83
Chapter Nineteen Bell XFL-1 Airabonita
Chapter Twenty Boeing XF8B-1
Chapter Twenty-One Curtiss XF14C-1
Chapter Twenty-Two Curtiss XF15C-1
Chapter Twenty-Three Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket
Chapter Twenty-Four Ryan XF2R-1 Dark Shark

Appendix One Official USAAF Review of Fighter Projects, November 1942
Appendix Two Standard Types as Trials and Testbed Aircraft

I think almost all of the projects in there are 'new' to my books and are not in ASP: WW2.
The text draws heavily from official 'Case History' files and flight test reports at NARA and elsewhere. And a lot of the photos are new.
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From Tony Buttler.
 
So basically it's airplanes that up to now we've only seen as mere footnotes in previous books. I like it already!
 
XP67_Moonbat said:
So basically it's airplanes that up to now we've only seen as mere footnotes in previous books
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Well, not absolutely "footnotes":

US Experimental & Prototype Aircraft Projects. Fighters 1939-1945 by Bill Norton. Speciality Press

American Secret Pusher Fighters of WWII. XP-54, XP-55 and XP-56 by Gerald H. Balzer. Speciality Press

Ultimate Allied Fighters by Justo Miranda. Fonthill

Plus many sources dispersed in previous books and magazines.

Thus, after being read and researched most of it I still recommend Mr Buttler book because I'm sure he could add new data and his magic personal touch.
 
Antonio said:
Well, not absolutely "footnotes":

US Experimental & Prototype Aircraft Projects. Fighters 1939-1945 by Bill Norton. Speciality Press

American Secret Pusher Fighters of WWII. XP-54, XP-55 and XP-56 by Gerald H. Balzer. Speciality Press

Ultimate Allied Fighters by Justo Miranda. Fonthill

Plus many sources dispersed in previous books and magazines.

Thus, after being read and researched most of it I still recommend Mr Buttler book because I'm sure he could add new data and his magic personal touch.
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Too true. Lot of good magazine articles out there. And the Secret Pushers book by Balzer is a great read too.
 
I'm another fan of Tony Buttler. A proud fan because of he is an excellent writer.

Could anyone who already owns the book tell about unbuilt projects contents? Just a light in the dark.

Most books aren't promoted in detail. Just few books can be bought because you're sure about the contents matching what you're looking for specific subjects. Buys are an absolute action from faith when you're guided by a brief description.

Thanks in advance
 
Have the book...

After reading the books of Justo Miranda and Bill Norton about the same theme
togheter with some monographs of the Steve Ginther series
I had the idea that not much more could be written about.

Now that I have Tony Buttlers magnun opus in my hands
I know I was wrong...

Ofcourse , some types are already extensively described in other publications
But I found new and rare info in about 40% of several chapters of Mr. Buttlers book.

Print is excellent. Photo's clear and some rare, with a few color pic's.
Drawing are spread over the several chapters, A number of the illustrations rare or unseen.

According th the ref. list at the start of the book, many prime sources and archives were
consulted By Mr. Buttler and his contributors .

This is not a book to read in one stroke, but to enjoy day after day..
Excellent in one word. Thanks Mr. Buttler.

P.S The book haves an 4 star quotation in the Aeroplane for February 2025.
 
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Following Lark's steps I ordered the book and received yesterday. After a quick look, as expected, part of the contents overlap with existing books, articles and official documents. But there's still enough new contents in the form of never seen photographs and a few unbuilt designs that make it a valuable addition even for those who already own every precedent publication. In fact, the author not only mention some of that works but recommends that it along the pages of the book.

Also, depending on what readers are looking for, it's important to note that this is not a story of the evolution of US WWII fighters.
This is a compilation of "experimental fighters", that is: one-off types built for research purposed only or intended to proof on concept testing to obtain a series production contract.

Thus, for those who don't have an exhaustive collection on WWII fighters, that's a true gem. I strongly recommend it.
 
I was particularly impressed with the photo selection. Buttler has found a surprising number of photos that I had never seen before! And having seen plenty of photos of the same types over 50 years, that was impressive.

Hopefully, there is an "American Experimental Bombers of WWII" in our future.
 
So, I was sent a review copy of American Experimental Fighters of WWII by Tony Buttler by Crecy. Cheers, Tony. My honest review is below. Comments and corrections welcome, I'll repost elsewhere later.

American Experimental Fighters of WWII: The Pursuit of Excellence is the latest book by veteran (and forum favourite) author Tony Buttler on Crecy's Hikoki imprint.

The book is beautifully presented, printed on thick, high quality paper and very well illustrated with photographs. Its pretty thick, with 320 pages. There are 24 chapters, each covering one aircraft type, two appendices, and an index.

Aircraft covered are Curtiss XP-46, Lockheed XP-49, Grumman XP-50 Skyrocket. North American XP-51 Lightweight Mustangs, Vultee XP-54 'Swoose Goose'. Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning, Curtiss XP-60 and XP-40Q, Curtiss XP-62, McDonnell XP-67 Bat. Republic XP-47H, XP-47J and XP-72, Hughes XF-11/XP-73/XA-37, Fisher XP-75 Eagle, Bell XP-77, Northrop XP-79, Convair XP-81, Bell XP-83, Bell XFL-1 Airabonita, Boeing XF8B-1, Curtiss XF14C-1, Curtiss XF15C-1, Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket and Ryan XF2R-1 Dark Shark.

There's an unfortunate typo on the index, "Northrop XP-56 Black j100" instead of "Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet", but this is not reflected in the main text which has been edited with great care. Not Tony's fault, it obviously happened in layout.

While the photos are exceedingly well reproduced, some of the 3 views while reproduced fine could have benefitted from some retouching to clean them up in my opinion. This is an area where Chris Gibson, Dan Sharp and I appear to have widely differing opinions, so its more of a personal preference than a criticism. (Tony, my offer to edit the 3 view drawings for your books for free was genuine, hit me up for the next book).

In writing this book, Tony has drawn on a reserve of previously unseen primary material and it shows, both in the text and in the picture selection. He has also been able to rely on the assistance of a stellar array of best-in-class researchers and authors, including Alan Griffith, the late Gerry Balzer, and other well-known names that will be familiar to Secret Projects forum members and serious aviation book aficionados. This network of contacts has helped Tony in his quest to find something fresh on every aircraft covered in this book.

The chapters vary in length from 7 pages (Curtiss XP-46) to 27 pages (Curtiss XP-62). Each chapter generally consists of an outline of the development program for the aircraft, some early concepts or alternative layouts considered if new material was available, the flight testing of each prototype and results thereof, and a technical description of the aircraft.

I will confess I'm more of a jet guy than a propellerhead, and my WW2 obsessive phase was mostly over by age 13, so some of the designs here were unfamiliar to me beyond the name. As Antonio mentioned its not a book about the development of US WWII fighters as a whole, but more of a compilation of 24 monographs on US WW2 fighter prototypes.Rather than reading it end to end as a single unified book, I found it much more enjoyable to dip in and read a chapter or two at a time, which is why this review took a little longer to arrive than usual.

When reading Tony's more project-focused books, as a reader I felt there was always the possibility that each unbuilt project described might have achieved its goals if built, however unliely in most cases. In this book, the failings and limitations of the various prototypes are documented, leaving the subjects of the book caught in a no-mans-land between the untested promise of unbuilt projects, and the real-world success of production aircraft. Sometimes, it turns out, you have to build a plane to find out it wasn't a good idea.

American Experimental Fighters of WWII is an excellent book, and is a valuable reference book in my ever increasing collection. If you like WW2 fighters, if you like prototypes, you will enjoy this. Even if you have some existing books covering some of the aircraft included, its going to have new information and photos you haven't seen before.
 
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overscan (PaulMM) said:
While the photos are exceedingly well reproduced, some of the 3 views while reproduced fine could have benefitted from some retouching to clean them up in my opinion. This is an area where Chris Gibson, Dan Sharp and I appear to have widely differing opinions, so its more of a personal preference than a criticism.
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Mmm, yes, I can see where opinions would vary. Ideally I'd like both original and retouched, but page count is always going to be an issue.
 
DWG said:
Mmm, yes, I can see where opinions would vary. Ideally I'd like both original and retouched, but page count is always going to be an issue.
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Chris tends towards redrawing the drawings himself for consistency and clarity, Dan tends to favour reproducing the originals as is. I generally sit in the middle, for my P1121 book I used mostly original drawings but removed scan artifacts, blobs and noise, increased contrast and darkened and thickened lines for clarity. You do run the risk of accidentally removing some feature of the drawing that you thought was noise though. In an ideal world where pagecount and effort was unlimited, you'd include the original and a redrawn version.
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Chris tends towards redrawing the drawings himself for consistency and clarity, Dan tends to favour reproducing the originals as is. I generally sit in the middle, for my P1121 book I used mostly original drawings but removed scan artifacts, blobs and noise, increased contrast and darkened and thickened lines for clarity. You do run the risk of accidentally removing some feature of the drawing that you thought was noise though.
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If we're losing stuff in the originals anyway then it really is a case of 6 and two 3s. I've noticed there's a distinct tendency to lose the vertical tail in scans of nose-on views, yet we can reconstruct that with reasonable confidence from the side and top views (for width and height respectively) if they're available, and that's assuming we can't tweak contrast in that one area of the scan to bring it out.

Personally I'm with you on tweaking the original, though that's possibly because I'm too lazy to follow Chris's approach.
 
Looking forward to it. Btw, all but the Hughes and the Northrop XP-79 are also pretty well covered in the excellent WW2 Aircraft Fact Files by William Green and Gordon Swanborough: US Army Air Force Fighters 1 & 2, and US Navy and Marine Corps Fighters.
 

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