Since its origins a century ago, aviation has reshaped the world. Without doubt in addition to the progress it has generated, the revolution in transport and communications it has triggered and the scientific discoveries it has prompted the airplane has above all transformed methods of combat and the structure and organisation of armies, tactics and strategies, becoming a decisive element in victories and defeats.
Accurate colour plates of the most important aircraft complete the picture of each historical period, and an appendix gathers together the technical specifications in a series of tables showing the principal characteristics of each aircraft that has been discussed and depicted. This volume records the story of a hundred years of military aviation. This glimpse is visible in the fighter planes of today, which integrate within dazzling aerodynamic envelopes the world's most sophisticated technologies and weapons, capable of giving a single man the devastating power of entire armies of the past.
