What you get in this instance is almost 300 pages of text, photos (many in color and some not previously published), and detailed illustrations covering the five variants of the early Banshees: the F2H-1/F2H-2/F2H-2B/F2H-2N/F2H-2P, and a review of available kits, detailed and illustrated, and aftermarket items that matches the best that I have ever seen. (The Kitty Hawk kit will be added in due course, one of the advantages of an eBook; Part 2 will cover the -3 and -4.)
Fully covered and well illustrated are configuration differences including the various cockpit layouts, paint and markings, operational use summary, and squadron assignments. Attention to detail is paramount, as in noting (which I did not know) that the tip tanks were interchangeable from left to right, not an obvious conclusion since they hang off the wingtip at an angle rather than extending straight out or being hung directly underneath. Also little known is that the F2H-2 Banshee's wings could not be folded or unfolded with fuel in the tip tanks since the F2H-1 did not have them and the wing-fold structure and actuator were not redesigned to accommodate a tip tank loaded with fuel.
One telling example of the research involved is this book is that it does not make the oft-repeated error of stating that the production F2H-1 was shorter than the F2H-2 but correctly identifies the XF2H-1 as having the shorter fuselage but not the production F2H-1.
If you are reluctant to make the move to eBooks as I was, you need to reconsider and try one, certainly one as user-friendly as those from Detail & Scale. For a synopsis of what you'll get and the benefits, go to http://www.detailandscale.com/detailandscale_digital_publicationss.html.
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