You're gonna love the next few issues. We have the Air Superiority and Air Strike Tournament results from ORIGINS in this issue and in #16, respectively. We have some Air Intelligence material from one of our loyal readers, and it's good reading. The featured aircraft in this issue are collectively referred to as "Machriders" and represent some interesting early jet fighters. Issue #16 features new play aids charts from the upcoming 2nd Edition rules. And in later issues we have a feature on the India-Pakistan conflicts. Something for everyone, we hope. Now that the Gulf War has fallen far enough into the past for some perspective, some excellent studies are beginnmig to emerge. My current favorite is the "Gulf War Air Brief" produced by World Air Power Journal. This is a large- form at hardbound book, beautifully constructed, copiously illustrated with color photographs and well-designed illustrations and all wrapped around some truly insightful prose on the Gulf conflict, most of it told by the pilots themselves. The book is edited by Stan Mooreand the publisher is Aerospace Publishing Ltd., 179 Dalling Road, London W6 OES, England. The American/ Canadian publisher is Airtime Publishing Inc., 10 Bay Street, Westport CT 06880. I don't know whether the book will receive a large American distribution or not. If you see one, buy it. If you don't see one, see if your bookstore will order it for you. The ISBN number is 1880588 00 5 for the American edition and 1 874023 14 X for the English one. This comes with my highest recommendations. You don't want to miss it. I want to comment on the ORIGINS Air Superiority Tournament described in this issue. I'll be the first to admit that I was dissatisfied by J.D.'s tournament in Atlanta in 1990 and one of my reasons for conducting the tourney this year was to address what I felt were serious inequities in the scoring systems of previous events. I felt ripped-off last year and I didn't want anyone else to feel that way again. Sometimes good things come from less-than-good sources and this year's tournament was a perfect example. I truly believe that the final scores for the day represent the best estimate of the players abilities on that particular day. I also truly believe that if this tournament structure were used at more ORIGINS events, everyone would enjoy themselves a whole lot more. The basic idea is simple and I hope clearly explained in the article. I have produced a semi-official set of tournament guidelines that can be used by anyone interested in sponsoring an Air Superiority or Air Strike tournament. It's still being shaped up and evaluated, but it may become available to our avid readers as an AIR POWER product. If you use the guidelines, we would love to hear about tournament and print summaries and player scores. J.D. and I have talked more about a national ranking system and all the pros and cons associated with that. No decisions have been made, but we'd certainly like to hear from you. Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 15 Back to Air Power List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com