My fascination with airplanes started when I was a youn gkid in the 70s. My parents would take my sister and I to the fence just outside the airport to watch the planes take off and land. This was always a fun activity, something you can’t do anymore. We’d bring snacks and drinks and sit in our car.
Back then I couldn’t tell you a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 from a Boeing 727. OK, so I can’t do that these days without seeing them side by side. But my father knew his airplanes. I remember wishing I could tell them by sight too.
My dad and I each had an airplane that we would fly on the weekends. They were toy airplanes attached to strings. I can’t remember what they used fir fuel. But we had a great time flying them. I don’t know what model my airplane was but I remember it was painted in camoflage and had the RAF symbol on the side. This was before I knew what the RAF symbol was.
At some point in my teen years I started watching reruns of Baa Baa Black Sheep with my dad. It was an interesting show but I discovered my first favorite airplane: the Vought F4U Corsair. I loved the shape of the wings and how they could be folded up. It’s still my all-time favorite fighter.
Sometime after I started working full time in 1986 I discovered a series of books on airplanes. I wish I could remember the name of it. One year was dedicated to civil aircraft and the next was dedicated to military aircraft. They were printed in alternating years like that for some time. I looked forward to the new edition each year. Unfortunately they stopped printing them sometime in the 1990s.
I tried to find a suitable replacement for almost 30 years with nit much success. I really missed those books. Airplanes are one of my two special interests. This past summer I started looking for books about airplanes in earnest again. I couldn’t find anything close to what I had many years ago.
This past fall I told my sister about how I couldn’t find those kinds of books. I even gave her a rundown of my favorite types of airplanes. She gave me a book about military aircraft of the world for Christmas. I was in my glory. I finally scratched one half of my itch.
I couldn’t find a similar book on civil aircraft though. So I decided to write my own. What I had thought was going to be a nice book of bttween 400 and 500 pages has turned into an 18 volume set. At least that’s the plan right now. I decided to cover all sorts of aircraft from all sorts of manufacturers from around the world. It’s definitely a project but also a labor of love.
I still have my favorite aircraft but I’ve been discovering new ones as well. I’ve been having fun broadening my knowledge of them. Right now my favorite fighter is the Vought F4U Corsair, my favorite commercial jet is the Airbus A320, my favorite transport plane is the C130 Hercules (the Herky bird), my favorite private plane is the Cessna 150, and my favorite helicopter is the Bell 47. I’m still looking at things like private jets.
I don’t know where all this will lead. I’d love to have my series of books be recognized as a seminal work on aircraft. But even if it isn’t, hopefully I can bring the same kind of joy of aircraft to others that I have.