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95/182 The Vital Guide to Commercial Aircraft and Airliners: Including a Guide to Airlines and Their Colour Schemes Edited by Robert Hewson Airlife Publishing, Shrewsbury, 1994, 121 pp., ISBN 185310-538-4, L9.95
In my early plane-spotting career, I relied on annual publications like the Ian Allan ABC and the Observer's books. The march of technology and commerce made a new addition to these every year absolutely essential; that has certainly not changed, and in some respects may even have accelerated, particularly in civil aviation. Constant change is evident: comparatively few brand new civil aircraft types are now designed and produced, but longer-- established types are for ever being stretched and developed. Then there are changes in the airlines: ownership (even existence), operations and, especially, colour schemes. And if you cannot produce a brand new aircraft type (and if the existing ones are good enough and economic enough, why bother?), you can always change their names: somehow I cannot get used to thinking of the British Aerospace 146 as the "Avro Regional Jet", or the...