The Arado Ar 234
A Detailed To The Luftwaffe’s Jet Bomber

by Richard Franks

Valiant Wings Publishing
Airframe Album No. 9

Reviewed by Mick Evans

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This publication is in soft cover and is a full colour glossy publication in standard A4 format.  The publication details the Arado Ar 234 from concept through development and production to in service with the Luftwaffe in World War 2.  The publication contains 114 pages of English text with colour photographs of the only surviving Ar 234 at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre near Dulles International Airport.  Very detailed colour photogra phs of almost every part of the restored aircraft along with black and white period photographs and drawings.  Comprehensive history of each sub type from the Ar 234-V1 through to the Ar 234 B-2 is provided including period photographs, Arado drawings and written development details and upgrades. 

The colour side profiles are done by Richard J. Caruana and contains almost every scheme used by the Luftwaffe from the V1 to B2 including one USAF and one RAF captured schemes.  One of my favourite schemes is Ar324B-2 W/Nr 140173, F1+MT of 9./KG76 flown by Hptm Josef Regler.  This aircraft is in the typical RLM 81/82 upper surfaces and RLM 76 under surfaces.  But it is one of the aircraft that had RLM 76 sprayed high on the engine nacelles, splotches over the fuselage and fin and presumably the upper wings.

The technical details section uses the restored aircraft for colour photo detail but then adds drawings and period photographs to support the explanation of the detail.  Having an aircraft maintenance background I find this a good high level explanation of how the systems including the engines work.  The cockpit detail in photographs and drawings is excellent and leaves no area to the imagination.

The external fuel drop tanks, Walter Ri 202b rocket pod, bombs and photographic reconnaissance cameras are captured in great detail as well.

Section 2 is dedicated to black and white plates of every version of the Ar 324 and details the changes and additions to each version.

Section 3 is dedicated colours and markings and is quite a short chapter given that there were very few variations in the colour schemes applied with the overall basic scheme being RLM 81/82/76.

Section 4 is dedicated to model kits.  Libor Jekl builds the superb Dragon 1/72 scale Ar 234 B2 and details the ins and outs of the kit with some extra detail.  Steve A. Evans builds the excellent Hasegawa 1/48 Ar 234 B2 with some minor additions to the cockpit detail.  The remainder of the chapter is dedicated to listing all kits produced in all scales as well as a list of all after-market details parts and decals in all scales.  The final list contains all publications produced.

Overall this is a very comprehensive and nicely illustrated publication and will be a welcome addition to the collection of any person or modeller wanting excellent reference detail for the Arado 234 2000 series.

Thanks to Valiant Wings Publishing for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2016 by Mick Evans
This Page Created on 17 October, 2016
Last updated 17 October, 2016

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