Janes Pocket Book 3 - Commercial Transport Aircraft

Janes Pocket Book 3 – Commercial Transport Aircraft (1973)
John W. R. Taylor | Macdonald & Janes
ISBN: 0356043762 | Condition: Good
Lovingly re-circulated by the turbulence-proof purveyors at Crappy Old Books.

Remember when airliners had names, ashtrays, and a fighting chance of being louder than your uncle’s lawnmower? This palm-sized titan from Jane’s is your boarding pass back to the golden age of jet-age optimism, when a “widebody” meant a fuselage you could hold a cocktail party in and the cabin décor matched your favourite paisley tie.

Edited by aviation ringmaster John W. R. Taylor, this is the 1973 snapshot—meticulously compacted for pockets that also hold slide rules and a spare tie-pin. Inside you’ll find:

• Profiles of the big birds and brave oddities: 707s, DC-8s and Tristars on parade, plus Vickers, BAC, Ilyushins and Tupolevs striding across the ramp like Cold War runway models.

• Cut-to-the-chase data: spans, lengths, engine thrust, payloads, ranges—enough numbers to make your wristwatch calculator blush.

• Three-view drawings crisp enough to inspire paper-airline empires (or slightly questionable tattoos).

• Variants & timelines capturing that frantic 1960s–70s moment when every manufacturer tried to add two feet, four windows, and an extra letter to beat the competition.

• Engines, avionics and operator lists for the plane-spotter who likes to mutter “JT3D” under their breath at bus stops.

Our copy is graded Good: square spine, tidy text block, diagrams sharp. The cover shows the sort of hangar rash one acquires while being consulted mid-argument in a model club. No coffee tidal marks, no mid-Atlantic foxing, and the pages still turn with first-class smoothness. (Seatbelt sign off.)

Perfect for:

• Armchair dispatchers who can route a DC-10 to Malaga faster than modern baggage can reach Luton.

• Scale modellers chasing the angle of a 727 hushkit like philosophers chase truth.

• Anyone who believes aircraft should have proper names, not product codes that sound like new dishwashers.

Slip this volume in your pocket and become the person who can, with a single eyebrow, correct a documentary’s stock footage sins. Because in 1973, Jane’s didn’t do “content”; it did gospel—in miniature.

Crappy Old Books: keeping aviation history cruising at 35,000 feet, one gently scuffed pocket classic at a time.

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