This is the first book from this publisher, and it is in English! The introduction starts in a very Russian way, by telling the reader (who has already been told years ago, that Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Napoleon were really Russians, as was the invention of gunpowder, penicillin and Big Macs), that A. F. Mozhaiskiy created an aeroplane in 1882, K. E. Tsiolkovskiy 'substantiated' the jet engine in 1895 and so on. However when we get to the nitty gritty, what an astonishing variety of aircraft this country produced. Starting with copies of foreign designs, and continuing by modifying and improving them, by 1916 sixty new Russian types appeared in the year. And in many ways, like payloads carried, they were very advanced, compared to the Westerners.

The tale is then rather spoilt by stating that at the outbreak of War in 1914, 'the Russian military had on hand a fleet of aircraft which was comparable in number to those of the Germans, French or British', but does not say which. But enough of this whingeing. There is a wealth of facts, pictures, plans and stories here never before available in English, and coverage is given to the known, like the Il'ya Muromets and also the rare, like the Quadriplanes of V. F. Savelyev. I really enjoyed browsing through this book, although I hated the artwork on the cover. I am sure it is unique.