Transport Historian
Air Britain Airline Fleets Part One
In 1976, the decision was made to ditch ‘Fleet Operators’ and replace it with a truly pocket-sized spotter’s ‘companion’ entitled ‘World Airline Fleets Handbook.’ This softback book measured 4.5” x 6.75” and remained this size for the next three issues to 1979. You will see from the image above that there was a variety of bindings available: square-bound, comb-bound and wire-bound.
1976-1979 WAFH included a selection of black and white airliner photos. From 1980, all photographic illustrations were done away with never to return, and the annual releases have from that day forward become very much a compilation of data. In my opinion, this led to them falling short of the quality of the competing JP Airline Fleets see here: worldoftransportbooks.com/jp-airline-fleets which always provided a decent section of contemporary postcard sized airliner photos (in colour from the 1981 edition) until it was cancelled in 2013.
As for Air Britain, with the new decade came a new title – it was shortened to just ‘Airline Fleets’ which it remains to this day. The 1980 and ‘81 editions retained the 4.5” x 6.75” size but the ’82 edition had 0.75” inches added to the height becoming 4.5” x 7.5.” You can see the difference in height from the image above. This size remained constant until 1986, as did the wire-binding, although it is possible that alternative binding styles were available.
The 1987 edition saw yet another increase in height by 0.75” becoming 4.5” x 8.25” and this size was retained up to the 1989 edition, although binding alternatives are proven by the fact that my ’87 and ’89 editions are wire bound and my ’88 edition is square bound.
Whereas the 1976 to 1979 editions featured photo-pictorial covers, these were replaced by airliner drawings between 1980 and 1986, but reverted to photo-pictorial covers again (this time in colour) for the 1987, ’88 and ’89 volumes.
The airliners depicted on the front covers of each of the editions shown in the image are listed below for your reference:
1976: JA8008 DC-8 of Air Asia and PH-DTK DC-10 of Philippine Airlines.
1977: CC-CCG 707 of LAN Chile and P2-ANT DC-3 of Air Niugini.
1978: HK-1810 Caravelle of TAC Colombia and HK-812 C-46 of Aeropesca Colombia
1979: JA8517 Tristar of All Nippon and VR-HGU 707 of Cathay Pacific
1980: A300 Airbus (drawing)
1981: 727 (drawing)
1982: 737 (drawing)
1983: 707 (drawing)
1984: 757 (drawing)
1985: SD3-30 (or 60?) (drawing)
1986: HS-748 (drawing)
1987: N406XV BAe146 of Presidential/Continental Express
1988: C-GJPC Jetstream 31 of Ontario Express/Canadian Partner
1989: 9J-AFC ATR-42 of Zambia Airways.
Air Britain Airline Fleets Part One
In 1976, the decision was made to ditch ‘Fleet Operators’ and replace it with a truly pocket-sized spotter’s ‘companion’ entitled ‘World Airline Fleets Handbook.’ This softback book measured 4.5” x 6.75” and remained this size for the next three issues to 1979. You will see from the image above that there was a variety of bindings available: square-bound, comb-bound and wire-bound.
1976-1979 WAFH included a selection of black and white airliner photos. From 1980, all photographic illustrations were done away with never to return, and the annual releases have from that day forward become very much a compilation of data. In my opinion, this led to them falling short of the quality of the competing JP Airline Fleets see here: worldoftransportbooks.com/jp-airline-fleets which always provided a decent section of contemporary postcard sized airliner photos (in colour from the 1981 edition) until it was cancelled in 2013.
As for Air Britain, with the new decade came a new title – it was shortened to just ‘Airline Fleets’ which it remains to this day. The 1980 and ‘81 editions retained the 4.5” x 6.75” size but the ’82 edition had 0.75” inches added to the height becoming 4.5” x 7.5.” You can see the difference in height from the image above. This size remained constant until 1986, as did the wire-binding, although it is possible that alternative binding styles were available.
The 1987 edition saw yet another increase in height by 0.75” becoming 4.5” x 8.25” and this size was retained up to the 1989 edition, although binding alternatives are proven by the fact that my ’87 and ’89 editions are wire bound and my ’88 edition is square bound.
Whereas the 1976 to 1979 editions featured photo-pictorial covers, these were replaced by airliner drawings between 1980 and 1986, but reverted to photo-pictorial covers again (this time in colour) for the 1987, ’88 and ’89 volumes.
The airliners depicted on the front covers of each of the editions shown in the image are listed below for your reference:
1976: JA8008 DC-8 of Air Asia and PH-DTK DC-10 of Philippine Airlines.
1977: CC-CCG 707 of LAN Chile and P2-ANT DC-3 of Air Niugini.
1978: HK-1810 Caravelle of TAC Colombia and HK-812 C-46 of Aeropesca Colombia
1979: JA8517 Tristar of All Nippon and VR-HGU 707 of Cathay Pacific
1980: A300 Airbus (drawing)
1981: 727 (drawing)
1982: 737 (drawing)
1983: 707 (drawing)
1984: 757 (drawing)
1985: SD3-30 (or 60?) (drawing)
1986: HS-748 (drawing)
1987: N406XV BAe146 of Presidential/Continental Express
1988: C-GJPC Jetstream 31 of Ontario Express/Canadian Partner
1989: 9J-AFC ATR-42 of Zambia Airways.