Relics of the last good war, the Big One, WWII, these fighting aircraft were too beautiful and spoke too poignantly of heroic men and a righteous cause for lovers of fine airplanes to let them die. And so with meticulous craftsmanship and at huge expense, restorers keep coaxing America's World War II aircraft into the skies again. A former Navy photojournalist who served in Vietnam, Mark Meyer has established himself as one of the world's most accomplished and innovative air-to-air photographers. Here, from work he did while developing his book Classics: U. S. Aircraft of World War II (Howell Press, 1987), are Meyer's visions of the TBM Avenger (preceding page), the F4U Corsair (this and facing page), and, next pages, the F6F Hellcat (left) with the F4F Wildcat.