 Air
France
By Geoff Jones
Midland Publishing, ©2008
ISBN 978-1-85780-285-6
Hardbound, 160 Pages
Available from Specialty Press
for $36.95
Celebrating 75 years of service this year, Air France is an aviation
icon, known throughout the world. With a broad international appeal, it
is surprising that there has not been a good history of Air France written
outside of France, but luckily the anniversary has moved Midland Publications
to publish this text. The author has done extensive research in preparing
this book, and the result is a very thorough look at Air France, from
its beginnings in 1921 through present day. This includes the multitude
of associated airlines, such as Air Inter and UTA.
The book is separated by decades, which roughly match specific stages
in the development of Air France. For example, the 1920s saw the birth
of the airline, while the 1940s were the war years. The 1960s saw the
introduction of jets, while the 1970s brought that iconic supersonic transport,
the Concorde. The 1990s brought consolidation and privatization, and the
2000s introduce the SkyTeam alliance, KLM, and the A380. For all of these
chapters, the text is very well written and does an outstanding job of
telling the story of Air France.
While the text is nicely done, what really makes this book stand out
are the many photographs. While it is easy to find photos of the current
Air France fleet, hunting down photos of the earlier years is challenging.
This book helps with that, providing photos of Breguet, Blériot,
and Farman biplanes, Latécoère, Blériot, CAMS, and
Breguet flying boats, and Dewoitine, Wibault, Potez, and Bloch monoplanes.
Post-war, classic propliners such as the Douglas DC-3, Lockheed Constellation,
and Vickers Viscount share the Air France skies with the first jets: the
Caravelle, Comet, and 707. All the photos are clear and detailed, providing
the modeler with excellent reference material both in livery and in aircraft
type.
This is an excellent history of Air France, one which should appeal
to the airliner modeler and general aviation enthusiast alike. My thanks
to Specialty Press for the
review copy.
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