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Rating: 
Summary: Heartily recommended
Review: A fabulous buy. Heartily recommended. It doesn't have reams of text making for a dull read like many historical books, but still remains informative and to the point (as many designs were just that with no hard data available). The artwork on the cover by renowned aviation artist Keith Woodcock sets the tone for what is an excellent resource for modellers of Luftwaffe aircraft and military enthusiasts alike. Plenty of nicely rendered artwork can help modeller's choose paint schemes, decals, as well as fire the imagination to try and kit-bash some of these designs and view with interest what was so close to becoming our reality. This is more than a coffee table book. And UFO enthusiasts should look elsewhere - I don't see the relevence of a mention of that from a previous reviewer as the book extends only as far as a variety stealth bomber/flying wing designs which are so familair today....
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Art
Review: I found this book well worth the cost simply for the art. I have a great many books on WWII and secret projects, but most simply provide dry technical information, and 3-up drawings gleaned from old blueprints.This book, however, provides color illustrations from dynamic angles for a large portion (probably 80-90%) of the planes in the book. The information provided is certainly decent, with technical information, and 1-2 pages of text for each plane, but I felt the art, which was all excellently drawn, was the real gem. It is quite encompassing as well, with just about every hypothetical plane for which there is information on contained within. It was such a well done book I've ordered its companion, the Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Fighters, 1939-1945 book as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great Work
Review: I mostly disagree with "anhistorian" and his review of the book. The artwork in it, and it's two companion works, are top notch. I agree much of the text is simplified, but as a bonus that gives more room for line drawings, illustrations and photos. And I am not really interested in the authors political alignment, I am just reading his book. If you think he is being pro-German, well it appears to me that he IS German, and loves his country. Mr "anhistorian", if you are an American, don't you love your country? Nuff said. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this unique subject. Great job!
Rating:
Summary: Great Work
Review: I mostly disagree with "anhistorian" and his review of the book. The artwork in it, and it's two companion works, are top notch. I agree much of the text is simplified, but as a bonus that gives more room for line drawings, illustrations and photos. And I am not really interested in the authors political alignment, I am just reading his book. If you think he is being pro-German, well it appears to me that he IS German, and loves his country. Mr "anhistorian", if you are an American, don't you love your country? Nuff said. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this unique subject. Great job!
Rating:
Summary: The Germans Had Big Strategic Bombers
Review: It is well known that the Germans never fielded a heavy bomber to compete with the B-17, B-24, Lancaster, etc.
Less well known is the fact that the Germans spent quite a bit of time both before and during the war on developing large bombers. That they were not put into production was a matter of political and military decision making rather than any technical issues. Neither the Army nor Hitler expected a long war with the need to bomb the Russian factories beyond the Ural mountains or of course England. Planes like the Dornier Do 19, the Junkers Ju 89 and 290, and of course the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor were produced and flying before the war.
This book is mostly drawing of planes that never made it past the design phase. But in these drawings you can clearly see the equivalents of B-29's even the later B-36 (Except that it appears that almost everything the Germans did had two tail fins.). There are several flying wing designs that were being done just about the same time as the Northrup B-35 Flying Wing. The Messerschmitt ME P.08 was proposed in September of 1941, the Northrup contract was awarded in November 1941. Presumably the ME P.08 wouldn't have worked any better than the B-35 because the computer controls just weren't up to it in that time frame.
Of course the German Jet powered designs are very interesting as well. They had the jet engines in production and were beginning to think of the problems of layout and design for jet powered bombers. A gret fun look at what was never to be.
Rating:
Summary: Superb, Well Researched Book
Review: The (brilliant) illustrations and the (weird) technology described by the authors seems "sci-fi" to us, even now in the XXI century, and most of the times this book is closer to UFO literature than to military themes. But that's what makes the book BIG fun to read. So if you are interested in secret technology, nazi conspiracy and UFO stuff... you must read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good illustrations, but disorganized & uninformative
Review: The paintings in this book, realizing in many cases designs that were never constructed, are first rate. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is not to the same standard. Data on the designs is sparse at best, and the information is far from complete. The entry on the Junkers Ju 390, for instance, even though it appears in the section "Target New York," neglects to mention the second prototype, which flew to within 12 miles of the American coast near New York (only the first prototype is mentioned, and described as if there never was another -- an outright mistake). A vastly better entry on this plane appears in William Green's Warplanes of the Third Reich. Text entries in this book are consistently brief & lacking in detail; too often, they are oversimplified or inaccurate. Likewise, the chapters on projects from 1944-5 contain a number of designs from the early 1940s, and even some from the 1930s. There seems no rhyme or reason to the organization (furthermore, some of the planes included are not strategic bombers at all, despite the supposed focus of the book). Another problem is that related series of aircraft designs are scattered, out of order, through different parts of the book, without reference to chronology, technological development, or any other logical consideration. The author's pro-Nazi sympathies are also too much in evidence; he served in the Luftwaffe's design bureau during the war, and his regret that Germany lost the war is repeatedly expressed. He is actually quite strident in calling it a tragedy that New York was not bombed. He blames rigid bureaucrats at the top of the Nazi government for stopping designs which he clearly feels might have turned the war in Germany's favor, something he sorely wishes had happened. Given the horror that Germany unleashed on Europe and the world in the 1940s, I find it hard to read such dubious nostalgia. The one plus point of this book is the illustrations. The paintings are first-rate, showing all of the various designs in splendidly realized detail. Unfortunately, it's hard to appreciate the illustrations, since the book gives no clear sense of the development of the aircraft they depict. In short, if you are a modelmaker, you may well find this book very helpful. If you are interested in the remarkable technological leaps carried out by the German aircraft industry during the war, this book will not teach you much. For all the designs that were actually flown, Green's book, mentioned above, is vastly superior to this. For the planes only designed, this book is still the only game in town -- but poor information is not much better than none. I returned this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good illustrations, but disorganized & uninformative
Review: The paintings in this book, realizing in many cases designs that were never constructed, are first rate. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is not to the same standard. Data on the designs is sparse at best, and the information is far from complete. The entry on the Junkers Ju 390, for instance, even though it appears in the section "Target New York," neglects to mention the second prototype, which flew to within 12 miles of the American coast near New York (only the first prototype is mentioned, and described as if there never was another -- an outright mistake). A vastly better entry on this plane appears in William Green's Warplanes of the Third Reich. Text entries in this book are consistently brief & lacking in detail; too often, they are oversimplified or inaccurate. Likewise, the chapters on projects from 1944-5 contain a number of designs from the early 1940s, and even some from the 1930s. There seems no rhyme or reason to the organization (furthermore, some of the planes included are not strategic bombers at all, despite the supposed focus of the book). Another problem is that related series of aircraft designs are scattered, out of order, through different parts of the book, without reference to chronology, technological development, or any other logical consideration. The author's pro-Nazi sympathies are also too much in evidence; he served in the Luftwaffe's design bureau during the war, and his regret that Germany lost the war is repeatedly expressed. He is actually quite strident in calling it a tragedy that New York was not bombed. He blames rigid bureaucrats at the top of the Nazi government for stopping designs which he clearly feels might have turned the war in Germany's favor, something he sorely wishes had happened. Given the horror that Germany unleashed on Europe and the world in the 1940s, I find it hard to read such dubious nostalgia. The one plus point of this book is the illustrations. The paintings are first-rate, showing all of the various designs in splendidly realized detail. Unfortunately, it's hard to appreciate the illustrations, since the book gives no clear sense of the development of the aircraft they depict. In short, if you are a modelmaker, you may well find this book very helpful. If you are interested in the remarkable technological leaps carried out by the German aircraft industry during the war, this book will not teach you much. For all the designs that were actually flown, Green's book, mentioned above, is vastly superior to this. For the planes only designed, this book is still the only game in town -- but poor information is not much better than none. I returned this book.
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