Customer Reviews

Splash of Colors: The Self-Destruction of Braniff International

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As a former airline employee myself, I have read most of the books out there about airlines. Most of them seem to think that the only employees who matter are upper management. Not so. Nance understands that it is the pilots, flight attendants, ticket agents, and reservations agents -- the ones who have front line contact with passengers -- who ultimately matter the most in the public perception of the airline, and sometimes in its success or failure. However, this book correctly places the blame on the failure of the first Braniff where it belongs, on upper managment and take-over gurus who cheerfully ran the airline into the ground, and apparently never even paid the final paychecks of the employees left stranded and jobless back in 1982. This is the best airline book I've ever read. John Nance is a wonderful writer. I'm sorry he's turned to fiction, as his non fiction is better. His "On Shaky Ground" is the best earthquake book I've ever read.

John J. Nance is mostly known for his aviation thrillers, but this non-fiction work, his first book, is a great read. At the over 400 pages, the sad collapse of Braniff International is thoroughly looked at, from the airline's spectacular rise after 1965 to become a major world player to the shutdown on May 13, 1982. The problems which led to its downfall are all covered, the over extension after deregulation, the ineffective middle management, the poorly trained and many times hostile ground employees, the dirty tricks campaign by American Airlines and the incompetence of the later executives. Very well done. One minor complaint I have is that there are far too many footnotes. It seems to me most of them could have worked into the text, but it's not really a big deal. The bottom line is that this is a book that should be read by anyone who's in the airline industry. There's a lot to learn from Braniff's mistakes. (Note: This book is out of print, so you're in for search to get a copy, but I think you'll find it worth it.)

John Nance manages to describe the intimate details of the rise and fall of this incredible airline, and he manages to leave you on the edge of your seat! An incredible book, and highly reccomended to those with an interest in avation or airlines.

Captain John Nance a former Braniff International Airways pilot has done an outstanding job of relating the incidents that caused one of the greatest airlines to fail. He sticks to the facts and only the facts. As a reader you can almost picture yourself there as these events unfolded. In addition to this book, Captain Nance as also wrote several others. I've read everything he has wrote and I have to say that each book is as good as the last one.

Never did i ever believe i would find this book,(out of print) and it was so easy. fast and reasonable. thank you very much.

Having a vested interest in this story-my uncle was a Captain for Braniff International Airways for over thirty years-I wanted to know the whole story. I was impressed with the details of research and interviewing that must have gone into the manuscript that finally became the published work. I was looking for more details about the impressive advertising campaign that was created during the 1964-65 era, but he addressed this chapter in history with a very brief description. If anyone has read Mary Well's book "A Big Life"-you'll find that she wasn't the "brainchild" behind the "End of the Plain Plane", but her art director and copy writer who'd thrown the concept into the trash and she discovered it in an effort to get some new ideas into their approach. All in all, this was a very good read, and I wish that it could have been a little more informative about the public's overall perception of the company as it slid towards the cliff and eventually pushed over it.

The best way to describe this book is that I read it in one night. I couldn't put it down. Have you ever worked for a company that you wondered how did it stay afloat when you see the attitudes of the front line people all the way up to management. This book shows how one company, Braniff Airlines, imploded and destroyed itself from within. Great reading and a great book to give your supervisor.

For airline buffs this is a well researched book and very readable.
Sorry it didnt take us past 1984.

I am a former Braniff customer service agent. "Splash of Colors" is the most comprehensive, accurate portrayal of Braniff International. I worked for nine long months for this company. I was given no training whatsoever. I was assigned to work the weight and balance forms in operations, and flight crews continually warned management that my lack of training could cause their Boeing 727 to be misloaded and could cause an accident. Despite this, management gave me no training, instead, telling me to "try harder". Several of the managers I worked for were intoxicated most of the time.