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«Fighting Falcon. The History of the F-16»: A comprehensive story about the most popular military aircraft in the world

Опубликовал
Павло Чуйкін

For several days now, news has been circulating on the Internet about the alleged appearance of an American F-16 in the sky over Ukraine. Every Ukrainian is waiting for this legendary «Fighting Falcon», without exaggeration, and hopes for a better future are associated with it. And there is a lot to look forward to, especially after reading the new book from «Vihola» «Fighting Falcon. The Story of the F-16» by Andriy Haruk. In a small and easy-to-read format, the author has collected an interesting history of the aircraft, told about its concept, appearance, modifications and variants, participation in military conflicts, etc. Of course, I’ve already read this book, so I’ll go into more detail to help you decide if you need it.

«Fighting Falcon. History of the F-16»

Author Andriy Haruk
Publisher Vihola
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 216
Cover Soft with valves
Year of publication 2024
Size 145×200 mm
Website vikhola.com

Andriy Kharuk immediately says that he calls the F-16 and other similar aircraft not fighters, as we are used to, but hunters. He explains that fighter — translation of the Russian word «fighter», and there is no art in it. And hunter is a tribute to the names of these aircraft in European languages. Hunters are airplanes designed for air combat. They are hunters because they hunt, and hunting is a noble art that requires courage and skill, as well as the ability to track and pursue prey. All this is also required for air combat.

«Fighting Falcon. The Story of the F-16» — high-quality Ukrainian nonfiction on an important topic.

The «Vihola» publishing house has long been engaged in this area of literature from Ukrainian authors. It is good that they were able to publish a book on a relevant topic by a well-known and experienced author. For Andriy Haruk, this is not his first book about military equipment and everything related to it. He is also a professor of humanities at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy, a researcher of military aviation, etc.

His expertise is evident in everything: from the detailed narrative about almost every system of the aircraft to the interesting details of its use in various military battles. And most importantly, you can see the author’s love for the topic and the airplane in general.

«The Fighting Falcon. The history of the F-16» is divided into several parts. The first one tells directly about the history of the airplane’s creation. And it turns out to be so interesting that I’m surprised that Hollywood hasn’t made a movie about it yet in the spirit of «Ford vs. Ferrari».

The second part of the book reveals the technical details of the F-16, tells about its modifications, experimental models, ambiguous and successful decisions, etc.

In the third part, we learn about all the military adventures, battles, and fights over the forty years of the aircraft’s use. The author provides an interesting account of the F-16’s role in civil conflicts in South America, the details of Operation «Desert Storm» and other similar operations in the Middle East. We will learn about the role of the «Fighting Falcon» in the relatively recent coup in Turkey against the current president Rajep Erdogan, its impact on the war in Afghanistan, details of the wars in the Balkans, and more. The author also does not forget to describe every battle between F-16s and Soviet fighters. The latter were, and still are, several times worse in many respects.

The book «Fighting Falcon. The Story of the F-16» is full of technical details, graphs, abbreviations and acronyms. All of this is explained with decoding and so on, but just know that sometimes it will be difficult to read because you will have to wade through all of it. But this is logical for a book about a military aircraft, so I don’t see anything strange in it.

On the one hand, such moments sometimes slow down reading and make it less interesting. On the other hand, it is technical details that people expect when they buy a book about the history of an airplane. Moreover, there are plenty of fascinating photographs scattered throughout the book that provide a visual complement to certain information.

The book is also small, so even with the technical features, it reads rapidly. I devoured the 216 pages in just a few days. I learned many interesting things, and most importantly, I had a good time with the book. Now I can tell the difference between an F-16 in the sky and a Mig-29 if I see it in the sky. I know what versions and modifications our partners will supply us, how they differ, etc.

I cannot but mention the excellent quality of the «Viholy» books. I like the fact that almost all of them are paperbacks with flaps, which reduces the cost of these books. It’s also convenient because if you bend and tear off the inside of the cover along the marks, you get a stylish bookmark. I also like the style and design of this edition, the yellow paper that is pleasant to the touch, the font used and its size.

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