When my father came back from a visit to the Industrial Fair
in Hannover in 1961 he brouht me the booklet
86 Flugzeugtypen
together with the catalogue of the German Air Fair
(Deutsche Luftfahrtschau). This booklet, pictured right made me an enthusiast for propliners once forever.
There was another book which biased me to civil aviation,
Die Beherrschung der Luft from John Stroud, the German,
revised edition of The World Airways.
I loaned it from the local library in the early 1960's
for month, even for more than a year long.
Of great importance for been was also the 1959 catalog
from Revell Germany. I did not have much kits from this
catalog, not even aircarft, but browsing this
catalogue ever and ever again as a ten or eleven year
old boy has been one of the key experiences shaping my
interest in aviation.
In this catalogue the kits were arranged in a consistent
list format, depicted with a black & white drawing and
with a comprehensive caption. One could consider it as my
first aircraft type reference book.
I assume I got the 1961
Flugzeuge der Welt, the German issue of
the Observer's Book of Aircraft from William
Green the same year as it was published. Next years' issues
followed. This series let me get aquainted with contemporary
civil and military aircraft. And these books introduced a new
subject for me: Three view drawings. From now on I hunted for these
and declared a book on aircraft only as good if there were
3-views included. The first Observers were followed by William Green's
1964 Aircraft Handbook and the 1963 3rd. edition of
The Aircraft of the World, which dealt with all aircraft
still operative in the early sixties. There was another
aircraft type reference book,
Ken's Flugzeugtypen,
which I also got from the library. There where 3-views but
not for every entry and beeing written in German it was not so
trendy for a schoolboy as my English language books. Only
now I bought it for my collection.
In 1963 or 1964 at the age of fourteen there came just
abother subject: World War II aircraft. Fighters were
introduced to me by the series War Planes of the Second World War
by William Green. There were not only treated just the most
famous fighters but there were treated all fighters from all
countries which saw prototype or operational status in WW II.
Amazig books, then and now. I look them up still today, though
my interest in WW II warplanes has dercreased markedly. The
bomber issues were not yet issued and for bombers I had to rely on
the two volumes of Famous Bombers from the same author,
which a reduced scope of types.
More and more books followed, examples of which are the Proflie
Publication
series which introduced colored profile drawings and the Putnam
series of Aicraft manufacturer's monographies.
Regarding aviation magazines I regularily bought the German
Flugrevue since January 1963, the Swiss industrial
magazine Interavia since 1965 from my newsagent. In
1967 I subscribed to Flying Review.
I 1974 I had the bad idea to quit my my interest in aviation
and I offered my books and magazines for sale. These are the
original lists
of my books and magazines. One positive
effect was that I got money to buy an HP electronic calculator
for my engineering studies, which was very expensive in those
times. But abstinence did not last long.
And I got as mad on aicraft as ever. So most books I present
here I later "bought back" as seconhand.
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Flug Revue, January 1963.
German
aviation magazine
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Interavia, August 1964, Swiss industrial
aviation magazine
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Flying Review August 1967, No 12
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Profile Publication
Vol. 142
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Pictures above: Fred Anderson: 86 Flugzeugtypen (86 Types of Aircraft)
World Traffic Booklets. Comercial Aircraft Edition. Berne:
Greiner, 1957
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Die Beherrschung der Luft the German, revised edition
of The World Airways
from John Stroud.The Library copy did not have its
cover. |
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1959 catalogue Revell Germany |
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Page 1 of this catalogue |
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Above: The 1961 and 1962 issues of
Flugzeuge der Welt the German language edition of
The Observer´s
Book of Aircraft .
Above: Volumes 1-6 of War Planes of the Second World War
by William Green.
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