The World's Strangest Aircraft: A Collection of Weird & Wonderful Flying Machines

This is a great book at the price, if only for the photographs. But this is more than just a freak show--the author approaches the material topically, showing how an outlandish idea might eventually come of age (the flying wing), might be a flash in the pan (the early multiplanes), or might keep turning up like a bad penny (the parasite fighter concept). Other topics include gigantism in passenger planes, the quest for speed in racers, WWII experimental planes (some incredibly ahead of their time, some just incredible), lifting-bodies, the X-planes, tilt-rotors, VTOLs, jet flying boats, and planes built for oversize cargo. A fun read with great photographs not found in most aircraft histories.