Specialty Press

Airliners of the 1970's

by  Gerry Manning

Reviewed by  Walt Fink, IPMS# 2447

MSRP: $34.95 ISBN: 1-85780-213-6 Gerry Manning's newest book on commercial aviation is a welcome treatise on more innocent times back when airports had observation decks and you could even stand outside the boundary fence and photograph airplanes and flight operations. The publicity sheet accompanying this book sells it a little short; whereas they state that more than 50 types of aircraft are shown in 280 color photos, I counted no less than 311 excellent-quality color photographs covering 62 different aircraft types---and nearly 200 of the world's airlines. A complete caption accompanies each photo and in each one, the author has included a brief history of the featured airline and its operation of the illustrated aircraft. Most welcome in each writeup is a description of where and when the photograph was taken and the ultimate fate of the aircraft, whether broken up for scrap, written off in a crash, still flying, or in storage. You won't find many wild airliner markings in this work---other than a couple like the Bee Gees' personal black, red, and gold B-720 and Braniff's "Big Orange" 747, which was considered fairly garish in the '70's---those schemes are mostly a product of later years. You will, however, find page after page of classic airliners in mainstream liveries. One great thing about this book's subject is the fact that there were still a good many piston airliners in their halcyon days, plying the world's airways, along with some of the early jets, in the 70's. I'll admit I'm a bit of a sucker for big round engines and I was glad to find good markings and information on DC-3s, Convair twins, and their ilk. The photos in the book are a great source of reference for the airline modeler and some are clear enough to extract details from...that is, for those of us with the visual acuity who like to add lights, antennae, and other smaller things to our plastic creations. I'd be remiss if I didn't say the book brought back fond memories of my own days flying what were then The Friendly Skies---lots of the photos were pretty much the birds I remember from that particular period in my career. For all I know I crossed paths with the respective photographers represented in Manning's book. This fine softbound publication may be ordered direct from the publisher by calling 1-800-895-4585, ext. 105, or by visiting their website, www.specialtypress.com. Price is $34.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. I highly recommend this book to the airline modeler and historian alike. My thanks to Specialty Press and to IPMS/USA for the review sample.

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