The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Directory of Airplanes: Their Designers and Manufacturers (Hardcover)

~ Dana Bell (Author, Editor), National Air and Space Museum (Corporate Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This valuable directory contains a wealth of data on the history of aviation and attempts, for the first time, to identify every aircraft manufacturer and designer and every aircraft produced. This indispensable reference book is a comprehensive guide to the sheer number and variety of aircraft produced in the last hundred years.

The directory has thousands of entries with, for each manufacturer or designer, the names of all the classes of aircraft produced (powered fixed wing, unpowered fixed wing, powered rotor rotor-craft and unpowered-rotor rotor-craft). Entries are cross-referenced and brief histories of important companies have been added to enable the researcher to chart mergers, closures, and name changes. Significant nicknames and code names are also detailed. This valuable and unique book presents a vast, official array of data in an accessible form and is an essential reference book for any aviation enthusiast.

About the Author

Dana Bell is a leading expert on the history of aviation and a curator at the National Air and Space Museum Archives Division.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 382 pages
• Publisher: Greenhill Books; illustrated edition edition (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853674907
• ISBN-13: 978-1853674907
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #736,596 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what it claims to be . . ., July 8, 2002

By	Joe Martin "[e-mail]" (Chandler, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This directory, according to the introduction, is a byproduct of the effort to reorganize "a century's worth of aviation documents" in the National Air and Space Museum files. The result is an alphabetical listing of some 5,000 manufacturers/designers which have produced roughly 25,000 discrete types or models of piloted aircraft, about which NASM presumably has some information. For example, "Ferguson, Charles J. (California)" is listed has having designed/produced the "Ferguson Glider". Likewise, some 60 iterations of the basic C-130 Hercules design are listed under "Lockheed (Burbank, CA)". However, this book is exactly what the title suggests--a directory. You'll find no further information about the Ferguson glider or any of the many Hercules variants between the prototype YC-130 and the latest AC-130U.

What you will find are very brief histories of those companies (Lockheed among them) which have been transformed over the years through mergers, name changes, and so forth. This can help the serious researcher unravel some of the complex "arrangements" that have been made in the aircraft business over the years, particularly concerning companies that have long since ceased to exist. As would be expected in a work of this type, there are also some bits of what might best be described as aeronautical trivia. On page 253 is listed "Schmuck Aircraft (See: Monarch)".

The last 65 pages consist of another alphabetical listing of aircraft by name. Thus we find that the "ABC Glider" was produced by Schultz and the "Zwergreiher (Heron)" is the name given to the Burgfalke Lo 100.

In summary, this directory will no doubt serve as a useful guide to those fortunate enough to actually access the NASM files, and hopefully it will soon be found on the reference shelves of most libraries. It will also be helpful to someone who's trying to figure out what company built the "Gnu", for example, but bear in mind that to find anything ABOUT the thousands of aircraft listed here, you'll have to keep looking.