Since the 1940s, combat aircraft operated by the armed forces of the United States represented a military capability which no other nation proved capable of matching. The US-made military aircraft are usually the most controversial and most expensive, but also most powerful, most advanced, produced in greatest numbers, and best equipped and armed. Dozens of designs became outright yardsticks against which all other aircraft in the same category, manufactured by other countries and operated by other armed forces, are judged.This book is the first in a series of volumes to cover the history of combat aircraft in the USA from 1945 until 1990: specifically, this Volume 1 is the chronicle of service requirements that led to the development of specific types of fighters, fighter-bombers, and fighter-interceptors in the USA, the political maneuvering in their support or against them, their research and development and operational history in the period 1945-1949.David Baker presents hundreds and thousands of facts in an accessible, easy to follow fashion of a technical directory of the most important types, in a volume that is richly illustrated with authentic photography and exclusive artwork.