Great to see a Profile of this Aircraft

W.S. · 25 September 2013

"The Luftwaffe Profile Series No. 8: Arado Ar 240" is a short book on one of the lesser known Luftwaffe aircraft of the Second World War. Conceived in the late 1930s, and with only a handful having been built, Gerhard Lang's work which originally appeared in "Flugzeug Profile Arado Ar 240" is presented in this tome fully translated to English. The translation is good, and reads smoothly, and there is a fair amount of text which impressed me.Lang goes through each aircraft built and includes some of the models which only made it to the planning stages. The text is very informative, but the entire book is broken down only by each aircraft model, and only limited mention as to combat missions that the Ar 240 participated in are noted.The pictures are pretty good, both in quality and in captions, which can't always be said for some of Schiffer Publishing's other titles. All pictures are black and white, and it is noted by the author that no known color photos have ever surfaced of the Ar 240. Pages 12-14 incorporate a color profile section in center fold format, though no scale is given regarding the drawings. Modelers will find interest in some of the pictures regarding the cockpit and landing gear.While a three star rating would probably be more in line, I was thrilled that Schiffer took it upon themselves to publish this title on one of the more scarce birds of prey from the Second World War era. Certainly not a definitive book on the subject by any means, but not at all a waste of time or money despite the tome only being 24 pages. A very positive addition to any enthusiast or model builder's book shelf for sure.

OK but nothing exciting. Good history of the development of the prototypes. Many good photos.

B.B. · 24 January 2018

It's OK, but nothing exciting. It's only 24 pages long and much of that consists of photos. It's amazing how little is known of the development of this airplane. It never entered production and data is only known for some of the 15 or so prototypes that were constructed. According to this booklet, there is even confusion and uncertainty over how many prototypes were really constructed and which engines were mounted in them.It's also another example of the Luftwaffe airplane program development mismanagement. It got caught up in the arguments and decisions over which aircraft to produce: Do 335, Me 210, and so forth. None of those aircraft were successfully produced. The Me 210, in fact, was an aerodynamic and aero-engineering disaster. There was also apparently a personal vendetta against Arado by Field Marshal Erhard Milch, although that issue is not discussed in the booklet. Finally, and as was common with many Luftwaffe airplane developments, several sub-types of the Ar 240 were being designed before the first Ar 240A was even fully developed: Ar 240B through Ar 240F.Much more information is provided on the Ar 240 in the following books:* "Arado: History of an Aircraft Company" by Kranzhoff (1997). Pages 105 - 122 describe the development of the Ar 240 in great detail, including all the Luftwaffe political and personal decisions.* "Warplanes of the Third Reich" by William Green (1972), pages 58-63, provides a good history of the technical development of the aircraft.