Aviation History
Read Review January 2003, page 65

Pacific Ghosts (CD-ROM) by Justin R. Taylan and Michael John Claringbould. Balus Design / Pacific Ghosts, Hyde Park, NY (www.pacificghosts.com) 2002 $26.50

This extensive collection of enthralling images is sure to prove at least temporarily addictive. Once you begin to peruse the more than 200 images reproduced in Pacific Ghosts of the remains of both Allied and Japanese aircraft wrecks scattered about Pacific jungles, its hard to find a stopping place.

The CD-ROM opens by itself and is very well organized. It is easy even for the non computer-literate to move about the various categories, which includes U.S. aircraft wrecks, Japanese aircraft wrecks, a video walk-around, WWII cockpit views and slide-show mode. Several views each take you for a mosquito-free tour of 33 wrecks that were visited by two teams that scoured the Pacific for a variety of often forgotten artifacts, preserved from restoration - as well as the ravages of souvenir hunters - by their very isolation.

Many of the wrecks have especially interesting histories, such as the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero that flew in the attack on Pearl Harbor and was later shot down over northern Australia, or the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat flown by U.S. Navy pilot James J. "Pug" Southerland II, who was shot down by Japanese ace Saburo Sakai. Then there's the Lockheed P-38 Lightning flown by seven-victory ace Richard E. Smith.

Pacific Ghosts, with its varied mix of WWII aircraft offers a you-are-there visit to not-so-exotic locals, may be absorbing enough all by itself. But surfing junkies can find even more about the authors' and other Pacific area searches for the remains of World War II artifacts, in addition to aircraft, at an accompanying website (www.pacificwrecks.com)

- Arthur H. Sanfelici