[.ca] A Field Guide to Airplanes, Third Edition (ISBN 0618411275)

a 1992 edition:
Good book for 1992 but not the latest

Clever, clever way to identify planes and helicopters.:
A beautiful book. Greatly enjoyed by all who have read ours. For someone who is around planes a good deal such as I am, it is great fun to have such an easily carried book that is quick and easy to find the plane being discussed or looked for. Highly recommend this book.

A guide book about the iron birds of the sky.:
This is a great book for anyone who is interested in aviation or an novice "plane-spotter". The book is set up much like (as the title says) a field guide complete with field marks for quick identification. Also a great book for getting child that is interested in airplanes. There is also a helicopter section added.

A great spotter guide for the aviation fan.:
This well organized book contains more than 350 aircraft of North America. Each aircraft is well described and a history and statistical information is nicely presented. One of the more unique parts of this guide is that each aircraft is given a small list of items that separate it from similar looking aircraft. The illustrations are precise and very accurate, too. This guide is wonderful and comes in very handy. There are more planes that could be added and possibly a few rarities that could be removed, but the book's wealth of information weighs over. This guide aids beautifully in identification of aircraft and a second book, such as Jane's World Aircraft Recognition Handbook, would make a great companion to fill in all the information. All in all, this book is very worthwhile to any aviation enthusiast.

A classic, if a bit dated:
The format of "A Field Guide to Airplanes" will be familiar to birdwatchers, as the authors have taken the style of Peterson's famous identification guides and applied it to aircraft. There's nothing terribly original in this, as Peterson himself worked with the military in World War II to develop spotter's guides based on the principles he developed. All of which takes nothing away from the accomplishment of the authors. This "Field Guide" is a marvelous book for aircraft watchers of all ages. I bought my copy to give to a 9 year old who's currently fascinated by every flying machine that passes over his house, but I find it equally as interesting to thumb through. It's small enough to slip in a pocket and complete enough to identify most of the aircraft you're likely to encounter. As other reviewers have noted, though, it's getting a bit out of date. The last revision was in 1992, and since then we've seen the introduction of a number of new airliners and a veritible explosion of new models in the General Aviation marketplace. You won't find the 777 here, or the new Cirrus or Eclipse. It would be nice to see a revised edition in the next few years.