Airliners of the 1980s

By Gerry Manning
Midland Publishing, ©2007
ISBN 978-1-85780-261-0
Softbound, 144 Pages
Available from Specialty Press or $34.95

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The 1980s were an interesting time for airliner liveries, as airlines tried out new ideas and concepts. It also saw the decline of piston-engined passenger aircraft, in exchange for turboprop commuter aircraft, and the growth of widebody airliners. This book presents this interesting decade of airliners in an interesting photo collage spanning all types from all points of the globe.

The book is broken down by aircraft type, which is quite useful for the modeler looking for something interesting for a specific kit. Aircraft covered include the Airbus A300 & A310, Fairchild-Swearingen Metro, de Havilland DHC-8, Tupolev Tu-134 & Tu-154, Fokker F28, BAC 1-11, Lockheed L-1011, and the Boeing line of jets from the 707 through to the 767, among others. The photos are all nicely printed and capture the colorful, the common, the bland, and the rare.

For a generic airline reference, this is a great book to have. The broad coverage, limited only by the date, makes it a useful book for putting together a collection of airline models of the 1980s. My thanks to Specialty Press for the review copy. Visit their website for ordering information.