Book: Arab Air Forces

[reddfoxx]

http://www.amazon.com/Arab-Air-Forces-Aircraft-Specials/dp/0897473264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304213815&sr=8-1

An older book, but new to me.  This covers all Arab air forces, Algeria to Yemen (or, west to east, Mauritania to Oman...) from their origins till just after Desert Storm.  A brief history of each, with many black and white photos as well as a few color photos and profiles.  I got it for $7 at a local hobby store, and it's definitely worth that.

What-iffery:

Egypt almost got the F-5E.  There's a small photo of one in Egyptian markings (perhaps a demonstrator?)

Mauritania considered ordering the Pucara.

Oman was going to get the Tornado ADF.

Morocco considered the Mirage 2000 and F-20.

The Saudis may have had Italian engineers working on airfields in 1937; what if they had gone with Italian planes from that time on instead of mainly British?  In the mid-'60s they ordered Lightnings and other equipment from Britain; they also fielded offers from France and the U.S., so what might they have gotten instead?

Syria wanted MiG-31s, and Agusta A109s.

Sudan looked at F-5Es, Mirages, and the Puma.

South Yemen was supposed to get Hunters, but (oddly among Arab air forces) never got any because of a coup.

The UAE had an advanced fighter competition (after this book was published.)  They ordered F-16s and Mirage 2000s, but what else might they have gotten?

[Thorvic]

Books like these can be a treasure trove of Whiff inspiration and can be great fun when display a built model of one as when somebody comes along and says "They never flew those" you can pull out the reference material and say "Ah but they nearly did"    - Its a brilliant example of the What-if concept in action and a nice one to explain to the unitiated about the concept.

One i remember about Egypt we extracted from old copies of Air Pictorial from the 60's & 70's together with looking at the UK's public record office index, were they Wanted Sea King AEW's to patrol the border in sinai before the Camp David agreementand before the Falklands war (which is why the  Royal Navy got its Seaking AEWs in July 82 after the falklands war as the project had recently been investigated a few years earlier!).

Martin H should have a better record of the stuff we found which may be suitable fro this thread.

[Gondor]

You can add Syria operating Su-27's as well, in fact there was at least one in their markings as a demonstrator. I have an Su-27 in my stash ready to do as that.

Gondor