Reviews

Last Talons of the Eagle by Gary Hyland, Anton Gill

komet2020's review

Go to review page

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

LAST TALONS OF THE EAGLE takes a comprehensive look at the various secret technologies that were designed, tested or built for use of the Luftwaffe in its efforts to stave off the Allied bombing campaign against Germany, as well as for the use of the Wehrmacht itself.

Examples of these technologies included "designs for a hypersonic space plane, a manned V-1 flying bomb" [the Fieseler Fi 103 Reichenberg] that was to be employed by its pilot to fly into an Allied bomber formation, allowing scant time for said pilot to bail out of the Fi 103, and prototypes for "flying wing" aircraft. Indeed many of these designs and prototypes were fantastically futuristic, anticipating by several decades aerospace technologies that would later be perfected in the U.S. and Western Europe.

This is a book ideally suited for any readers who have an interest in technology. There are lots of photos of prototypes, designs from projects that never saw the light of days because of Germany's declining fortunes as the war proceeded, and aircraft (e.g. the Heinkel 162 jet fighter) that saw limited combat. 
More...