Dan Hagedorn

Best Available Coverage on a Now Obscure Airplane
First, let’s cover what was disappointing. No index, no bibliography, no footnotes, and sparse technical coverage.
What you do get is an excellent introduction to the history of US Army observation aircraft with a few fairly decent paragraphs fleshing out a few of the foreign contemporaries of the O-47. As part of the design competition the author also provides a nice specifications chart covering the entrants to the design competition that led to the O-47. Postwar service is covered fairly well. The book while not heavily illustrated is well illustrated with photographic quality appearing to be more dependent upon the quality of the source material rather than the publisher cheaping out on quality. For the modeler? There’s a bit of coverage on float and ordnance installations with along with a photo of a Nash Turret fit and form mockup. This is in addition to a few detailed photos of the target tug installation and a few photographs of the cockpits of fair quality.
There are 16 pages of color illustrations of mostly O-47 minus the 3 pages of color profiles or precursor Army Air Corps observation aircraft. There are 138 pages devoted to service units with organizations in Hawaii, the Canal Zone, Australia, etc. getting some coverage.
Too be frank, I’ve gernally been disappointed by the coverage given to airframe development and systems in the books authored by Mr. Hagedorn. However, his operational coverage is first rate. And makes his books worthy of purchase as aircraft histories within an organizational context. When taking his predilection towards now obscure aircraft and or obscure service use into consideration? I will continue to purchase his work.
I cannot enthusiastically recommend the book for either modelers or those like myself with a technical interest in the airframe and systems.
For someone with an interest in pre-war National Guard units and history? This book is an absolute goldmine and worthy of purchase.… (mere)

This book covers a broader subject area than the cover would suggest, in that Dan Hagedorn is interested in examining the role of the observation plane in the Army Air Force of the Interwar Era, not just producing a type history, though you will learn just about everything that can be known about this aircraft in the course of this book. The basic problem is that the O-47 (it never had an official or informal nickname), and the follow-on Curtiss O-52, were almost too sophisticated for the role of forward reconnaissance and artillery spotting that U.S. Army ground forces officers desired, while still not being able to survive in the combat airspace of the 1940. They were soon to be replaced by light aircraft (referred to as "Liaison" machines), in the direct army-cooperation role. However, when the mission statement was written for the competition that produced the O-47, Air Force officers were mostly concerned with "Frontier Patrol," meaning that the O-47 was very useful for submarine hunting, and served in that role throughout World War II.… (mere)

This is a great volume if you’re interested in the stations where the AT-9 was used and or a brief history of the purpose designed multi-engine Advanced Trainers (AT) used by the US Army Air Forces during WWII.
There are a few paragraphs interspersed throughout the book describing various accidents and incidents and the recollections of pilots who flew the airplane that also make for interesting reading. And the postwar history of the aircraft is not only probably as complete as one could expect at this date, but done in a way that keeps the airplane in context with the times. With 93 pages dedicated to Stations and Units the author provides an outstanding overview of the size the US Army aviation training program that is worthy of being a book onto itself.
Regrettably the number of pages dedicated to the AT-9 itself are relatively sparse (And probably not the fault of the author.) Less 20 percent of the book are dedicated to the development and technical aspects of the aircraft out of 175 pages. So, you end up with nothing describing why some aircraft had redundant gyros on a center panel (page 43) and others did not (Page 45). Other pictures illustrate the controls located on the floor on pages 29 and 30 with no discussion of the difference in layout as to if they’re on a AT-9 or AT-9A.
Overall? Based on the Amazon scale of not how the good the book is, but how much I enjoyed it, the book rates a solid three stars.
Although partially disappointed by this particular volume, I remain an avid reader of Mr. Hagedorn and have a copy of his upcoming book on the O-47 on my list.
As the only publication extant on the AT-9? It gets a “buy” recommendation.… (mere)

Please note the 3-Star rating is not meant to be critical of this book. I am pleased to have it as part of my library. I just couldn't "get into the book". And while I couldn't really get into it, I recognize it as an excellent introductory volume to the subject. The rating is based on my enjoyment of the book and not as a literary critique.
As a caveat, I am only about 60% of the way through the book but have also skipped ahead and skimmed most of the chapters.
If you're looking for a specific in-depth history or specialized volume on some aspect of Latin American aviation, this is not the book for you. However, when considered as a stand-alone introductory volume to Latin American aviation this is an outstanding volume. A review of the footnotes (There is no bibliography.) indicates a Mr. Hagdedorn found a fair amount rare and original archival material for this book. Coupled with what appears to be an extensive index, I think this is an excellent one-stop general volume on the subject. (I have a few books on specialized areas of Latin American aviation and via the index found associated text in this book that on occasion provided a little more information covered in the other book, but nothing definitive.)
My only negative comments are given the size at over 500 pages, I do have some concerns about the log term health of the binding and I would liked to have seen a bibliography.
I cannot recommend this book for anybody with a "scholar" like interest in a specialized areas of Latin American aviation. I believe they will be left wanting as their particular area of interest by virtue of the intent of this book will not get in-depth attention
This is however a volume I would recommend as a introduction to the personalities, politics, companies, (Including airlines and manufacturing.) and the influence of the US and Europe in Latin America.… (mere)