Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide Fifth Edition (Jane's ... (ISBN 0061346195)

The Essential Guide to Aircraft is... well, Essential!:
I really don't know what to think about this book... it seems to me that the cooperation between Jane's and the Smithsonian isn't working at all. If I took my old (late '80 and mid '90) recognition guides or the mini-guides published by Harper-Collins in the '90 and compare these with the new revised editions of the 2000, I can't feel anything but disappointment. The back cover says: "The essential guide to the world's aircraft". Essential is the word here. Graphically beautiful - the photos are outstanding nothing to say about it - but it's all. I found more data and specs in the early pocketbooks than in this all new edition, not to talk about the booklets published by Airlife in their "Vital Guide to" series, maybe less complete in the number of specimens presented, but absolutely more satisfying from the point of view of the data presented per aircraft shown. Seeing the steep price tag ($ 24,95 for a new copy) I'm really beginning to think about looking elsewhere to find what I need. For the moment being, I bought also (but I'm still waiting the delivery) the original Jane's All The World Aircraft (unfortunately an old - 1990' vintage - edition `cause the most recently published are absolutely out of discussion with their prices in the $ 250+ for a used copy). Hope this one - being a pro-guide - will be more useful.

Lohengrin:
Top level performance. I didn't like the scenes and costumes. The former, more traditional Vienna staging of Lohengrin was better.

Great book!:
A great guide as always. Jane's guides are in the lead. A small in volume but very comprehensive guide to modern flying machines.

Great Aircraft Recognition Book That Can Be Improved:
This book is part of the Jane's Recognition Guide series. Other recognition guides include: Airline, Space, Train, Vintage Aircraft, Guns, Special Forces, Warship, Tank. Great aircraft recognition book with the following chapters: Civil Jet Airliners; Civil Prop Airliners; Civil Utility Aircraft; Business Jets and Turboprops; Private Light Aircraft; Civil Helicopters; Combat Aircraft; Military Training Aircraft; Combat Support Aircraft; Military Helicopters; Glossary of Acronyms and Terms; International Civil Aircraft Markings; National Military Aircraft Markings. Has a color photo of each aircraft along with information such as: History; Accommodation; Cargo; Max Speed; Range; Dimensions; Variants; Operators; Armament; Features. A future edition may include aircraft such as: Kawasaki XP-1; Grumman F-14A Tomcat (Iran); AIDC AT-3 Tzu-Chiang; Canadair CL-41/CT-114 Tutor; Fouga Aerospatiale CM-170 Magister; PZL-130 Orlik; Rockwell (Boeing) T-2 Buckeye ?; DHC (Bombardier) DHC-4A Caribou; Ilyushin IL-18/20/22 Coot ?; Bolkow (MBB/Eurocopter) Bo 105; Boeing C-22 (B-727); Boeing C-40 Clipper; Boeing C-32A; Boeing P-8; UH-72A Lakota; Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser; Northrop F-5N; Boeing OC-135B; VH-71 Kestrel; Boeing 787; Ilyushin Il-28 (H-5); MiG-17 (J-5); Xian JH-7 (FBC-1); T-6 Texan; T-28 Trojan; Harbin SH-5, PS-5; Beriev Be-12; Beriev A-40, Be-42; Airbus A400M; An-28 Cash; An-225 Mriya; Boeing E-4B. An idea would be to create two books from this one-one civil aircraft and the other one military aircraft-with more aircraft and information. Related books include: Jane's All the World's Aircraft; Jane's Aircraft Upgrades; Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War I; Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II; Jane's American Fighting Aircraft of the 20th Century; The Naval Institute Guide to World Military Aviation; past editions of Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guides; The Encyclopedia of Modern Aircraft (2006).

Good pocket guide to aircraft:
As the title suggests, this book may be useful to take to an airport or an airshow and identify the aircraft present at those locations. The information presented is somewhat limited, but sufficient to provide a detailed explanation on each aircraft. Each of the aircraft in this book have one page dedicated it, and the page contains color photograph or two, specifications, history and some relevant facts, as well as a three-view drawing of the aircraft, which is useful in its identification. The drawbacks I found are that not all modern aircraft are in this book (the E-2 Hawkeye is missing, for example), but overall, it is very up-to-date.