Tom Cooper (author)

Last updated August 25, 2019

Tom Cooper (born 1970) is an Austrian author, journalist, historian and illustrator with an interest in modern military aviation.^[1]^[2]

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising nine federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km² (32,386 sq mi), a population of nearly nine million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is landlocked and highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.

Aviation, or air transport, refers to the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as balloons and airships.

Following a career in worldwide transportation business, in which he travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East and established contacts, he moved into writing. Cooper narrowed his earlier fascination with post–Second World War military aviation to focus on smaller air forces and conflicts, about which he has collected extensive archives of material. Concentrating on air warfare that has previously received scant attention, he specializes in investigative research on little-known African and Arab air forces, as well as the Iranian air force. His first works were published in the 1990s on the ACIG website (Air Combat Information Group; former ACIG.org, since 2013: ACIG.info).

Cooper has authored and co-authored 40 books, the first of which offered exclusive insights into the operational history of the Iranian and Iraqi air forces during the Iran–Iraq War (fought 1980–1988).

The Iran–Iraq War began on 22 September 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, and it ended on 20 August 1988, when Iran accepted the UN-brokered ceasefire. Iraq wanted to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state, and was worried that the 1979 Iranian Revolution would lead Iraq's Shi'ite majority to rebel against the Ba'athist government. The war also followed a long history of border disputes, and Iraq planned to annex the oil-rich Khuzestan Province and the east bank of the Arvand Rud.

His major early works were two series: 'African MiGs' (two volumes), and 'Arab MiGs' (six volumes). The former examined the development and service history of 23 air forces in Sub-Saharan Africa; the latter the operational history of major Arab air forces at wars with Israel in period 1955–1973.

Since 2017, Cooper is working as editor of the five @War book series published by Helion & Co. (Africa@War, Asia@War, Europe@War, Latin America@War and Middle East@War), to which he is also contributing as author and illustrator.

Except for books, Cooper has published more than 1,000 articles in specialized press and online, including magazines like Air & Space Smithsonian, AirEnthusiast, Air Force Magazine, AirForces Monthly, Air Combat, AirPower, Combat Aircraft, Le Fana de l'Aviation, Fliegerrevue & Fliegerrevue Extra, Flight Journal, International Air Power Review, Iranian Aviation Review, Jane's Defence Weekly, Modern War, SDI, Truppendienst, WarIsBoring.com, and World Air Power Journal.

Bibliography

Tom Cooper, Great Lakes Holocaust: The First Congo War, 1996–1997, Helion & Company, 2013. ISBN 978-1-909384-65-1.
Tom Cooper, Great Lakes Conflagration: The Second Congo War, 1998–2003, Helion & Company, 2013. ISBN 978-1-909384-66-8.
Tom Cooper, Wings over Ogaden: The Ethiopian-Somali War, 1978–1979, Helion & Company, 2014. ISBN 978-1-909982-38-3.
Tom Cooper, Syrian Conflagration: the Civil War, 2011–2013, Helion & Company, 2015. ISBN 978-1-910294-10-9.
Tom Cooper, Hot Skies over Yemen, Volume 1: Aerial Warfare over the Southern Arabian Peninsula, 1962-1994, Helion & Company, 2017. ISBN 978-1-912174-23-2.
Tom Cooper, Hot Skies over Yemen, Volume 2: Aerial Warfare over the Southern Arabian Peninsula, 1994-2018, Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-911628-18-7.
Tom Cooper, MiG-23 Flogger in the Middle East: Mikoyan I Gurevich MiG-23 in Service in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Syria, 1973-2018. Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912390-32-8.
Tom Cooper, Moscow's Game of Poker: Russian Military Intervention in Syria. Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912390-37-3.

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Tom Cooper and Abdallah Emran, 1973: The First Nuclear War, Crucial Air Battles of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Helion & Company, 2019. ISBN 978-1-911628-71-2

Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz, Wars and Insurgencies of Uganda, 1971–1994, Helion & Company, 2016. ISBN 978-1-910294-55-0.
Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz, The Rwandan Patriotic Front, 1990–1994, Helion & Company, 2016. ISBN 978-1-910294-56-7.
Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz, Ethiopian-Eritrean Wars, Volume 1: Eritrean War of Independence, 1961-1988. Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912390-29-8.
Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz, Paradise Afire, Volume 1: Sri Lankan War, 1971-1987, Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-910294-07-9.
Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz, Ethiopian-Eritrean Wars, Volume 2: Eritrean War of Independence, 1988-1991 & Badme War, 1998-2001. Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912390-32-8.
Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz, War of Intervention in Angola: Angolan and Cuban Forces, 1975-1976. Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-911628-19-4.

Tom Cooper and Ahmad Sadik, Iraqi Fighters: 1953–2003: Camouflage and Markings. Harpia Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-0-615-21414-6.

Tom Cooper and Albert Grandolini, Showdown in Western Sahara, Volume 1: Air Warfare over the last African Colony, 1945-1975. Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912390-35-9.

Tom Cooper, Albert Grandolini and Arnaud Delalande, Libyan Air Wars. Part 1: 1973–1985, Helion & Company, 2015, ISBN 978-1-909982-39-0.
Tom Cooper, Albert Grandolini and Arnaud Delalande, Libyan Air Wars, Part 2: 1985–1986, Helion & Company, 2016, ISBN 978-1-910294-53-6.
Tom Cooper, Albert Grandolini and Arnaud Delalande, Libyan Air Wars, Part 3: 1986–1989, Helion & Company, 2016, ISBN 978-1-910294-54-3.

Tom Cooper and Andreas Rupprecht, Modern Chinese Warplanes, Harpia Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9854554-0-8.

Tom Cooper, Babak Taghvaee and Liam F Devlin, IRIAF 2010: The Modern Iranian Air Force, Harpia Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9825539-3-0.

Tom Cooper and David Nicolle, Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2004, ISBN 1-84176-655-0.
Tom Cooper and David Nicolle, Arab MiGs. Volume 1: Mikoyan i Gurevich MiG-15 and MiG-17 in Service with Air Forces of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco and Syria. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2009, ISBN 978-0-9825539-2-3.
Tom Cooper and David Nicolle, Arab MiGs. Volume 2: Supersonic Fighters: 1956–1967. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2011, ISBN 978-0-9825539-6-1.

Tom Cooper, David Nicolle, Lon Nordeen and Patricia Salti: Arab MiGs. Volume 3: The June 1967 War. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2012, ISBN 978-0-9825539-9-2.
Tom Cooper, David Nicolle, Lon Nordeen, Patricia Salti and Martin Smisek: Arab MiGs Volume 4: Attrition War 1967–1973. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2013 by Harpia Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9854554-1-5.
Tom Cooper, David Nicolle, Holger Müller, Lon Nordeen and Martin Smisek, Arab MiGs. Volume 5: October 1973 War. Part 1. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2014, ISBN 978-0-9854554-4-6.
Tom Cooper, David Nicolle, Albert Grandolini, Lon Nordeen and Martin Smisek, Arab MiGs. Volume 6: October 1973 War. Part 2. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2015, ISBN 978-0-9854554-6-0.

Tom Cooper, David Nicolle and AVM Gabr Ali Gabr, Wings over Sinai: The Egyptian Air Force During the Sinai War, 1956. Helion & Company, 2017. ISBN 978-1-911096610.

Tom Cooper and Doug Dildy, F-15 Eagle versus MiG-23/25: Iraq 1991. Osprey Publishing Company, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4728-1270-4.

Tom Cooper, E. R. Hooton and Farzin Nadimi, The Iran-Iraq War, Volume 1: The Battle for Khuzestan, September 1980 – May 1982. Helion & Company, 2016. ISBN 978-1-911096-56-6.
Tom Cooper, E. R. Hooton and Farzin Nadimi, The Iran-Iraq War, Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982 – December 1986. Helion & Company, 2016. ISBN 978-1-911096-57-3.
Tom Cooper, E. R. Hooton and Farzin Nadimi, The Iran-Iraq War, Volume 3: Iraq's Triumph. Helion & Company, 2017. ISBN 978-1-911512-44-8.
Tom Cooper, E. R. Hooton and Farzin Nadimi, The Iran-Iraq War, Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts. Helion & Company, 2017. ISBN 978-1-911512-45-5.

Tom Cooper, E. R. Hooton, Desert Storm, Volume 1: The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Shield, 1990-1991. Helion & Company, 2019. ISBN 978-1-911628-22-4

Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop, Iran–Iraq War in the Air, 1980–1988. Schiffer Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0-7643-1669-9.
Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop, Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2003, ISBN 1-84176-658-5.
Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop, Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2004, ISBN 1-84176-787-5.

Tom Cooper, Farzad Bishop and Ahmad Sadik, La Guerre Iran-Iraq: Les Combat Aériens. Part 1. Éditions LELA PRESSE, 2007.
Tom Cooper, Farzad Bishop and Ahmad Sadik, La Guerre Iran-Iraq: Les Combat Aériens. Part 2. Éditions LELA PRESSE, 2007.

Tom Cooper and Milos Sipos, Iraqi Mirages: the Dassault Mirage Family in Service with the Iraqi Air Force, 1981-1988. Helion & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912390-31-1

Tom Cooper and Patricia Salti. Hawker Hunters at War: Iraq and Jordan, 1958–1967. Helion & Company, 2016. ISBN 978-1-911-096-25-2.

Tom Cooper, Peter Weintert, Fabian Hinz and Mark Lepko, African MiGs: MiGs and Sukhois in Service in Sub-Saharan Africa. Volume 1: Angola to Ivory Coast. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2010, ISBN 978-0-9825539-5-4.
Tom Cooper, Peter Weintert, Fabian Hinz and Mark Lepko, African MiGs: MiGs and Sukhois in Service in Sub-Saharan Africa. Volume 2: Madagascar to Zimbabwe. Harpia Publishing, Houston 2011, ISBN 978-0-9825539-8-5.

Related Research Articles

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The Front for National Salvation (FRONASA) was a Ugandan rebel group formed by Yoweri Museveni in 1972. Kikosi Maalum and FRONASA, as well as several smaller groups including Save Uganda Movement and Uganda Freedom Union, formed the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) and its military wing the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) in 1979 to fight alongside Tanzanian forces against Idi Amin.

The Congolese Air Force is the air branch of the Armed Forces of the Republic of the Congo, in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). Political tensions have now declined with the fall of the Cold War in Africa and most of its fighter aircraft were scrapped in 2001.

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The Ofira Air Battle was one of the first air battles of the Yom Kippur War. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched a massive surprise attack on Israel that included over 200 Egyptian aircraft participating in an opening airstrike. In one of the first engagements near Israeli Air Force Base Ofir at Sharm el-Sheikh, on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, two Israeli Phantoms reportedly engaged 20 Egyptian Air Force MiG-17s and their eight MiG-21 escorts on their way to attack Israeli positions in the area. By the end of the brief six-minute battle, seven MiGs were confirmed to have been shot down according to Israeli account. The remaining MiGs disengaged and the Israeli Phantoms returned to their base.

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Colonel Mohommed Rayyan, nicknamed "Sky Falcon," was a fighter pilot with the Iraqi Air Force during the Iran–Iraq War. He scored 5 air combat kills, making him an ace and the most successful Iraqi fighter pilot of that war.

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References

↑ Tom Cooper, Osprey Publishing
↑ About the Author, Modern Chinese Warplanes: Combat Aircraft and Units of the Chinese Air Force and Naval Aviation, Harpia Publishing

External links

Sean M. Maloney, Review of Iran-Iraq War in the Air 1980-1988, Canadian Military Journal, Autumn 2003
Arab MiGs, Volume 6: October 1973 War, Part 2 (review by IPMS USA)
Great Lakes Conflagration, Google Books
Classics, Air Force Magazine (illustration)
Al Assad's Nighttime Killers, WarIsBoring.com

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[1] Tom Cooper, Osprey Publishing

[2] About the Author, Modern Chinese Warplanes: Combat Aircraft and Units of the Chinese Air Force and Naval Aviation, Harpia Publishing

Tom Cooper (author)

Contents

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

References

External links