Life As an Air Force Fighter Pilot
Author: Robert C. Kennedy
List Price: $20.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0516233459
Publisher: Children's Press (September, 2000)
Sales Rank: 1,028,123
Average Customer Rating: 1 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 1 out of 5
how in the world....?!?
This is the only book I have given a 1 star rating for. I borrowed this book from the library for my son (thank God I didn't BUY it!) and was horrified to discover all the mistakes in it. And it's from a reputable publisher too. How the author could have made the mistakes that he did in writing this book is beyond me. Surely most of the info he needed for this is given on the Air Force Web pages. From the moment my son opened the book, I found myself explaining that there ARE women fighter pilots and that the air force base in Virginia is Langley, not Largely (?!?!). How many other errors there are, I do not know, but those two alone were enough to bias me against the book. I see another reviewer found quite a few more. I guess if we want to find out more about the Air Force, we should just check out their web site. DON'T buy this book!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Fraught with misinformation
I bought this for a child interested in airplanes and the Air Force. Unfortunately, it is filled with BAD information. In at least two places it mentions Largely Air Force Base in Virginia (should be Langley) and a caption accompanying a photo of the chapel at the Air Force Academy says that the Academy is located in Chapel, Colorado (How about Colorado Springs, CO?). It says that women can't be fighter pilots (wrong!) and gives a completely inept explanation of the organization of wings, squadrons, flights, etc. These are just a few examples of the errors plaguing this book. The publication date is 2000, so it is not merely outdated. For anyone who knows ANYTHING about the Air Force, its practices and its planes, this book will be irritating. For anyone new to the subject, this is NOT the place to get your information. Accustomed as we have become to the Dorling-Kindersley match-up of beautiful photos and great information, we jumped at this book, thinking it would be similar. It appears to be merely riding the coat-tails of this trend, looking to make a buck from the unsuspecting. Even the beautiful pictures are inaccurate - at least 2 of the pictures are of Navy aircraft and personnel. The internet is the perfect place to sell this book. Given a chance to look it over first, I would have left it on the bookstore shelf collecting dust.
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