Eagles at War

Boyle recycles the major characters from Trophy for Eagles to tell the story of aviation's development as a decisive weapon in WW II. Frank Caldwell, now a hard-hitting Air Force general, and still-hot pilot Frank Bandfield match wits and skills with Nazi Germany's production genius Bruno Haffner and Luftwaffe ace Harold Josten in this episodic work, in which the principal plot lines involve America's search for a long-range escort fighter and Germany's efforts to introduce jet and rocket weapons. Although more constrained than its predecessor by the need to adhere to historical events, this novel nevertheless skillfully integrates fact and fiction. While the work is not technically a roman a clef, knowledgeable readers will have no difficulty identifying the Bell Airacobra as the model for Boyne's misbegotten ``McNaughton Sidewinder.'' And if Eagles at times exaggerates the personality factor in U.S. aircraft design and procurement policies, the novel is correspondingly successful in conveying the byzantine realities of a Third Reich that spectacularly failed to fight its war with its scientific and technical expertise. (May)