It is always a delight to see the latest from Mushroom Model Publications. Their books are the perfect combination of historical background, detail images and profiles/drawings. This one is no exception.

The book covers the development of the helicopter in Germany that include types such as the FW-61, and Flettner Fl-265, rotorcraft that verified the various rotor types and lead to the three operational helicopters that were flown during WWII.

Those three are covered in greater depth. The Flettner Fl-282 could very well be considered as the first operational helicopter in the world. Using twin two blade intermeshing props, it was not only easy to fly but able to land and take off from the decks of ships at sea. Designed for spotting as much as anything else, the type would have been much more widely used had not many been destroyed in bombing raids.

The next is the Fa-223, a much larger heavy lift helicopter with twin rotors mounted far apart from each other on outriggers. This provided outstanding stability and the first rescue of a downed pilot via helicopter was performed by the Fa-223. Post war, the first crossing of the English Channel was performed by one of these aircraft. It was also in limited use post war by the Czechs and French.

The third was the Fa-330, a submarine launched flying kite. This was not a powered craft, but required at least 15 knots headway to get into the air. It was used operationally by U-boats operating in the somewhat safer waters of the South Atlantic and Indian oceans where there would be enough surface time to unstow, assemble and launch the vehicle.

In addition to these rotorcraft, there are other German experimental types given some brief descriptions as well as early Allied post war developments, some of which were the direct cause of inputs by ex-German helicopter designers.

As usual, there are photos of extant rotorcraft, all of them Fa-330s, as the larger types were all scrapped. There are also a goodly number of color profiles to help round things out. A set of 1/72 scale drawings of the Fa-223 is added in with the book.

Another superb production and one that I know you'll enjoy reading and find useful.

May 2007

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Many thanks to Mushroom Model Publications for providing the review copy.

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