German Aircraft Instrument Panels Vol. 1

[Full title: German Aircraft Instrument Panels Vol. 1 - Bf 109 F-4, Bf 110 E, Fi 156, Fw 190 A-3, Hs 123 A, Ju 88 A-4] Dariusz Karnas, Inside Series, Mushroom Model Publications/Stratus s.c., Sandomierz, Poland, 2014, ISBN 978-83-63678-55-5. Illustrated, hardcover, published in English.

Cover image © by Mushroom Model Publications/Stratus s.c., 2014.

This first volume of a potentially substantial series of reference works by Dariusz Karnas is a superb and very welcome publication. The instrument panel of each aircraft featured in German Aircraft Instrument Panels Vol. 1 is described in a section of four to six pages, and each such section contains a minimum of text plus black & white photos, lavish colour renderings of the instrument panel and the individual instruments and gunsights, and, at times, additional drawings taken from the aircraft's handbook.

Needless to say, the colour renderings are the main focus of the book. They are quite accurate and realistic, and some of the individual instruments are depicted at near their original size. The instrument panels themselves are shown both completed and bare, the bare versions being captioned with numbers and corresponding lists of applicable instruments. The individual instruments feature their original German designations and parts numbers as well as the appropriate English designations.

In spite of the orientation of the cover, German Aircraft Instrument Panels Vol. 1 is actually a landscape format book (sized 30 x 22 cm), which permits a larger reproduction of the instrument panels than would have been possible had a portrait format been chosen. Having said that, the nature of large colour renderings, in combination with the somewhat odd choice of a light brown background, at first glance make this publication appear almost like a children's book. But the realism and amount of detail featured are absolutely stunning.

Frustratingly, however, there are also shortcomings. At a meagre 38 pages, and featuring the instrument panels of a mere six aircraft types, the actual content of German Aircraft Instrument Panels Vol. 1 is disappointingly moderate. This is a bit of a shame. While the subject matter will, by necessity, require multiple volumes at any rate, it would have been nice if individual volumes would have been produced as slightly more substantial works of reference.

Moreover, while I do understand that both publisher and author will have to adhere to self-imposed limits to keep a publication within a realistic scope and price range, Karnas has elected to omit any other cockpit details, such as instrumented side panels, controls, ancillary equipment, or seats. Or the rear of the instrument panels, for that matter. The small amounts of text contained provide a brief overview of the aircraft types, but no information whatsoever with regard to the instrument panels themselves or their development. While all of these omissions undoubtedly reflect conscious decisions by the author, the inclusion of such content easily would have made German Aircraft Instrument Panels Vol. 1 an indispensable standard work on the topic.

As it is, however, this indisputably lovely book is best used in conjunction with existing publications in order to obtain a more complete picture of the subject matter. There are some that are quite essential, such as Peter W. Cohausz's substantial hardcover study Cockpits Deutscher Flugzeuge [German Aircraft Cockpits] (Aviatic Verlag GmbH, 2000), or the same author's Cockpit Profile softcover series (Flugzeug Publikations GmbH, 1998-2000). And then there is, of course, Kenneth H. Merrick's extensive but equally frustratingly incomplete German Aircraft Interiors 1935 - 1945 - Vol. 1 (Monogram Aviation Publications, 1996); another book that could/should have become a standard work for decades to come.

Messerschmitt Me 209 - Der Weg zum schnellsten Propellerflugzeug der Welt

Ferdinand C.W. Käsmann, Aviatic Verlag GmbH, Oberhaching, Germany, 2012, ISBN 978-3-942645-03-4. Illustrated, hardcover, published in German.

Cover image © by Aviatic Verlag GmbH, 2012.

When I came across the news regarding the publication of this book last year, I felt elated. The Messerschmitt Me 209 record aircraft had always intrigued me greatly, and I also entertained a faint hope that the author might perhaps have managed to uncover some new information regarding the later and very elusive V5 and V6 fighter prototypes bearing the same Me 209 designation. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but not necessarily an unrealistic expectation.

It was thus a somewhat sobering moment when I finally held Messerschmitt Me 209 - Der Weg zum schnellsten Propellerflugzeug der Welt [Messerschmitt Me 209 - The Path Towards The Fastest Propeller Aircraft In The World] in my hands. To speak of a disappointment is perhaps too harsh, but in this day and age, one tends to expect more from a specialist publication, and, not least, from a publishing house that has provided the enthusiast with milestone works such as Vernaleken/Handig's indispensable Junkers Ju 388 or Kössler/Ott's Die grossen Dessauer (covering the Junkers Ju 89, Ju 90, Ju 290, and Ju 390 family of aircraft), to name but two.

The first impression was that Käsmann's Messerschmitt Me 209 was deficient in exactly the content advertised by its title. What usually fills an introductory chapter in monographs by Monogram Aviation Publications or Classic Publications, for example, takes the space of 47 out of a total of 119 pages in Käsmann's work. In other words, close to half of the rather slim book is dedicated to an introduction to the topic. It is understood that material on the Me 209 is somewhat scarce (not least given that only four prototypes of the original Me 209 design were built), and the book's subtitle hints at an examination of the larger context. Nonetheless, I don't think it is wrong to expect the majority of this book to be about the actual aircraft mentioned in the title.

Käsmann's description of the quest for speed in aviation and earlier high performance aircraft designs at least has a direct connection to the Me 209's gestation, and this is thus a far more consistent approach than the irritating practice implemented by authors such as David Myhra or Horst Lommel, whose books are often filled with vastly disjointed and unrelated material or badly rendered computer graphics, apparently to simply enhance the page count if no authentic and directly related material could be found.

Expecting the definite history of the Messerschmitt Me 209 will leave the reader feel strangely dissatisfied. In addition, the wording of the text is sometimes feels strange. At certain points, it's almost like a novel, rather than a documentation or factual report. Perhaps this may be explained by the simple fact that the author is of a different generation (he was 84 years old when the book was published) than many of the authors who have published the seminal Luftwaffe works of the past two decades.

Messerschmitt Me 209 does provide the reader with what is perhaps the most comprehensive collection of Me 209 photos in one single source. The illustrations include countless very interesting detail shots as well as period drawings, facsimile documents, newspaper clippings, and drawings by Günter Sengfelder. All illustrations are printed in black & white (even the photos of the sole surviving Me 209), and there are no color profiles. The layout of the book is utterly uninspired, however, and a far cry from what could be achieved today.

The Messerschmitt part of the book closes with scant information on the Me 309 (some of it contradictory) and a mere five sentences (along with the only known, familiar photo) on the Me 209 V5 and V6. The narrative then departs again for the final pages, to focus on the quest for aviation speed records after World War II.

It's not surprising, then, that one is prompted to have very mixed feelings about this publication. It's is nice to have a single, hardcover compilation of so many Me 209 photos and drawings. But given the page count of this book, I did expect significantly more comprehensive research on the aircraft itself instead of such a balance towards context.