A fascinating look at some of the bloopers in the aircraft industry. Some aircraft were commercially unsuccessful, some no longer met military requirements, some definitely should not have left the drawing board. The aircraft presented run the gamut from bogus concepts to planes with power problems to construction disasters, among other flaws. The World s Worst Aircraft takes a detailed but light-hearted look at these flying disasters.

Funny at times and technical at some. This is the kind of book you would spend sometime with when you don't want to read anything serious. ( )

A fun reference book of 'bad' aircraft. From 20 wing monstrosities (more must be better, right?) to flying cars and early VTOL attempts, the planes range from total disasters to concept planes that just didn't make it. If you are a fan of airplanes, this is a good reference to have, if just for a chuckle or two. ( )

This is, to my knowledge, the *third* book (all by different authors) to carry this title . . . after one by James Gilbert published in the early 1980s ]and another written a decade later by Bill Yenne. Of the three, Winchester's covers the widest range of failed designs, but offers the least discussion of each type. Its greatest value is its definition of "worst," which corresponds roughly to "least successful" and thus includes aircraft that worked alright but were designed for poorly conceived niches (jet flying boats? parasite fighters?), were left behind by the rapid advance of technology (the hapless Douglas Devastator and Fairey Battle of WWII), or were testbeds for failed concepts (nuclear-powered bombers, Mach-3 airliners). Airplane enthusiasts will get a good laugh out of this book, but it also underlines the fact that the history of technology is *not* a steady, linear "march of progress" . . . always a valuable lesson. ( )