Western Equivalent to Yefim Gordon?

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griml0ck122

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Hey all
Over the past year, I've acquired some of Yefim Gordon's books, because they're pretty cool and chock full of information (despite some sections being very similar...hmmm..). I was wondering, for those who in the know, are there similarly detailed books on Western modern aircraft? I'd love a big book on the F-15, chock full of detail.
Thanks in advance
 
Yefim's work is very patchy and relies heavily on translating the work of others into English, I wouldn't hold him up as an exemplar of anything.

The "Yefim Style" was based on the Aerofax books in the "Red Star" era, but the more recent "Famous Russian Aircraft" series are something of a triumph of quantity over editorial quality. They manage to be huge mostly due to the huge picture count, many of which are unnecessary and repetitive, while the text is just expanded versions of his older works without any serious revision or new research. The nadir point must be the MiG-31 volume, where an entire chapter is a word for word plagiarism of another book (the MiG-31 section from Fedosov's work on Air Defence), and the different chapters actually contradict each other.

For the F-15 specifically, Steve Davies' book F-15 Eagle Engaged and his earlier F-15E Strike Eagle are both pretty good, as is Peter E Davies & Tony Thornborough's Crowood volume on the F-15. It depends a bit on what you are looking for. Steve Davies also did a Haynes Manual on the F-15 which you might find interesting.
 
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overscan (PaulMM) said:
Yefim's work is very patchy and relies heavily on translating the work of others into English, I wouldn't hold him up as an exemplar of anything.

The "Yefim Style" was based on the Aerofax books in the "Red Star" era, but the more recent "Famous Russian Aircraft" series are something of a triumph of quantity over editorial quality. They manage to be huge mostly due to the huge picture count, many of which are unnecessary and repetitive, while the text is just expanded versions of his older works without any serious revision or new research. The nadir point must be the MiG-31 volume, where an entire chapter is a word for word plagiarism of another book (the MiG-31 section from Fedosov's work on Air Defence), and the different chapters actually contradict each other.

For the F-15 specifically, Steve Davies' book F-15 Eagle Engaged and his earlier F-15E Strike Eagle are both pretty good, as is Peter E Davies & Tony Thornborough's Crowood volume on the F-15. It depends a bit on what you are looking for. Steve Davies also did a Haynes Manual on the F-15 which you might find interesting.
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Thanks for the tip man! I got the Mig-29 Yefim book and thought I saw alot of the ol' ctrl+c ctrl+v, as well as REDFOR bias (but that comes with the territory I guess)
 
Yefim is a bit, lets say infamous, among Russian aviation historians. A not in a good way.
 
sienar said:
Yefim is a bit, lets say infamous, among Russian aviation historians. A not in a good way.
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Yes you can tell who he's pissed off by the lack of original material from certain manufacturers.

If you publish anything in Russian on aviation, you can guarantee Yefim will scan your pictures and perhaps also steal your text for one of his books. Soviet era materials "copyright" is presumably a dubious legal area?
 
What part does his usual "tag team partner" Komissarov play?
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
sienar said:
Yefim is a bit, lets say infamous, among Russian aviation historians. A not in a good way.
Click to expand...
Yes you can tell who he's pissed off by the lack of original material from certain manufacturers.

If you publish anything in Russian on aviation, you can guarantee Yefim will scan your pictures and perhaps also steal your text for one of his books. Soviet era materials "copyright" is presumably a dubious legal area?
Click to expand...

Oh its possibly quite worse than that. I'm putting this under spoilers since its rumor;

In 1980 a bunch of soviet aviation historians were arrested and searched by the KGB. One of them was jailed for 2 years since he had WW2 era documents and photos that were still classified as secret, and all the rest had their materials confiscated.

Post-wall Gordon moves to England and all of a sudden he has tons of photos and other documents to fill his books with. Those who knew him in Russia, many of whom were the historians searched and jailed, all claimed that he had no personal archive and never had access to the state archives, nor did any of the historians give him material. Everyone who was arrested/searched thinks it was Gordon who informed.

Now this could be typical Russian pettiness directed at someone who got out of Russia, made presumably a decent amount of cash and became recognized international as an authority on Russian Aviation. But it is kinda strange that Gordon didn't get a KGB visit. And then when he is in England he starts publishing photos that were confiscated from others.

Or he could have been given/paid for access to the archives before moving and just made thousands of copies. Whatever the case he is pretty much reviled in Russia.
 

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