Need Help finding an Aviation Book!!
 

Hi forumites-

I need help tracking down a book that I know exists. It was my father's aircraft book that was lost during a move about 20 years or so ago. I can't ask him what it was called, if he even would remember, because I want to get it for Father's Day and don't want to "tip my hand" so to speak. So I'm turning to this forum. Here's what I remember...

It was a very robust book, but not a HUGE book. I think it was maybe 300-500 pages at most, but could be wrong. It detailed many different aircraft, mostly civilian but I am not excluded military in case I'm not recalling it perfectly. It had 3-view images on some planes with pretty lengthy descriptions on the major aircraft. Basic information was speeds, weights, etc but some detailed development and variations. The most "defining" feature I remember that I have not been able to find in books I've purchased were the many "exploded views" of the aircraft. These images had a legend above/below referencing each area or part. Examples would be: 42) Left Engine Intake, 3) Middle Emergency Exit, 25) Nose Antenna or 132) Rear Bathrooms. Additionally, I think there were seating layouts/diagrams. I remember there being large commercial aircraft, like 737s, the Concorde, etc, smaller craft like Cessnas, and older aircraft like DC-3s. I read this book many times as a kid and I just can't seem to find the book that matches what I'm remembering. I've already purchased "Modern Commercial Aircraft" by Endres and "The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Aircraft" edited by Mondey. I thought one of these had to be it, but when I received them the other day they just weren't the book I remember.

More information that might help - My father traveled a lot in the early/mid 70s while in the Army and then for work in the late 70s and early 80s. Maybe he bought it at an airport and it was a limited production/esoteric book? I hope not, I really wanted to track this thing down but have been unsuccessful every time I search for it. Not many matching results show up when I've looked for it in the past. I have been able to track down an image that matches what I remember being in the book. Here is a link to this exploded view image ---> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...779f496898.jpg

I have tried looking into "JP Fleets International" and Jane's "All the World's Aircraft" but haven't been able to see any sample pages of the insides of the books. I don't want to buy them and have them end up not being what I'm looking for. So, does anyone have any recollection of a book like this? Thanks so much in advance and I hope this is in the right sub-forum! If not, I apologize and mods please move to appropriate forum.

Welcome to Pprune. I can't help I'm afraid, but you're certainly on the right sub-forum, and I'm sure someone will be along shortly with at least suggestions, if not the actual book name.

Try Bill Gunston, sounds like something he might put his name to

I have a book called ' History of Aviation ' by John W R Taylor ( a very prolific British author back a few decades ) and Kenneth Munson, published by New English Library in 1975. There is no ISBN number and I have a feeling it was originally published as a weekly magazine that was later bound as a book.

In each chapter there are several plan views of the aircraft which are mentioned in the chapter.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Try here:- https://www.aviation-bookshop.com/

Simon Watson is the contact.

Also Air Britain who have a vast store of S/H books. http://www.air-britain.com/

Lots of copies available on AbeBooks.

http://pictures.abebooks.com/MANYHILLS/4680513191.jpg

ISBN 10: 0706402413 ISBN 13: 9780706402414

I have this in my book case dating from 1981....still pick it up every now and marvel that most aircraft types included are now no longer flying!

Has 25 cut outs and some fantastic pictures

For a while I had a feeling it might be this one:
http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383427496l/7317985.jpg

But I don't think that this has all the exploded views that you mention. I have a book somewhere that fits your description quite well but covers only military types and if I remember correctly, that is a Bill Gunston book. Have you tried doing a Google image search for 'Encyclopedia of Aviation' or 'Bill Gunston book'? It brings up a few possible covers that you might recognise.

Thanks for all the replies. I accidentally posted my thread twice so I thought I got nuked on my first attempt at posting!

I will check out AbeBooks. That History of Aviation looks promising.

Could there have been a compilation of Airplane magazine printed as a book perhaps? I keep seeing Airplane come up when I do searches for these cutaways on Google Image Search.

Thanks for all the help! It's greatly appreciated :)

Oh wait a minute, that The Encyclopedia of the World's Civil Aircraft might just be it!! How many pages is it? Better yet, does it have an ISBN number? That cover just has the feel of the time period I'm trying to recall if you get what I mean. The fonts and graphics just scream it to me LOL...

gimi7

It has a few less pages than you remember at 254

Oddly it does not have an ISBN, but a quick google revealed what looked like the same edition on Amazon, with these ISBN's:
ISBN-13: 978-0517362853
ISBN-10: 0517362856
https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-.../dp/0517362856

Can't help the OP, though I know there have been quite a few books published over the years similar to what he describes. Abebooks is certainly a great source of quality reading material (and a drain on the coffers!)

Apologies for jumping on his thread, but oddly enough I was recently thinking about a "big book of aircraft" we had in my school library about 35-40 years ago. From memory it was sized somewhere between A5 and A4 and inch or two thick.

It was a sort of historic encyclopaedia of civil and military aircraft going back to the pioneer days and covered perhaps eight or a dozen types on each spread - brief paragraph of description and a nice little perspective drawing of each type.

It was published in the late 1960s and covered types right up to that time - seem to remember the Aerostar and Merlin II were included and probably the 747, not sure if the other wide bodies made it in. Love to get hold of a copy, but no idea what it was called, where published or anything else.

Ian Allan was a school governor so we had an extensive selection of his publications, but I don't think it was one of his.

If anybody has any ideas please...

TCU-

I ordered a book on Abebooks.co.uk - ISBN 9780600349792 - Shipping out of Indiana, and priority so I should have it soon.

I think it is the same book. The title uses Encyclopaedia instead of Encyclopedia and it's a paperback instead of hardcover. Well, I hope it is the same book! Thanks again to everyone for the help.

Treadigraph-

Jump on the thread all you want! The title of my thread wasn't specific to one book so perhaps it can serve to help others driving themselves nuts trying to recall a book or other publication.

Just wanted to update everyone:

The first two books I purchased were NOT the book I was recalling. However, I'm 99.9% sure TCU nailed it. I gave my father the two "incorrect" books this morning but also told him the "correct" one was on the way. Actually, two of them are on their way. I bought a second one with the Encyclopedia in the title (instead of Encyclopaedia) just to cover all bases. Alas, neither of them arrived for Father's Day, which is not a big deal as I know Media Mail can take a while.

I did have to tell my father that I bought him this book just in case his interest was piqued and he went go looking for it himself (then he'd have 3 copies LOL). He asked me where I got the help from and I showed him this thread and the pictures that TCU provided. He's almost certain that's the right book. He mentioned that he purchased the book in 1981 at an aviation store across the street from Fort Lauderdale Airport. I'm assuming that's FLL? I'm guessing the store isn't there anymore. He mentioned too that he bought a radio there to pick up aircraft radio communications and that they also sold basically anything you'd want that was aviation-related, like sunglasses, books, electronics, etc. He called it an Army/Navy store for aviation. Sounds cool. Anyone been to such a store?

Thanks again to all of you for your help. Have a great rest of your weekend!

gimi7
Glad your search is looking like tracking down the book. I can't recall where I secured mine, but as an aviation mad teenager aviation books were an easy birthday and Christmas option for friends and family...as they still are!

What is nice is that my own son now has a keen interest in aviation (not sure how that happened) and is fascinated by my "historic" 70's and 80's publications which contain a lot more artwork and technical sketches than todays photo packed coffee table books

I was, and remain, fascinated by both exploded and wire-frame drawings of aircraft and (almost) all things mechanical. Having read the trhead, I must resiste the temptation to add more books to my already full shelves. And, NO, I will not throw any of them away ...