Does anyone know why, in the past half century, a third edition of Aubrey Jackson’s British Civil Aircraft 1919 – 1972 has not been published? A second, revised edition, was produced by his son, Roger Jackson, and published in 1973. Aubrey Jackson died in 1982. But I know of no effort to publish a further edition, taking in aircraft that appeared on the British civil register subsequent to 1972. I appreciate that, now, the task of compiling a revised and updated edition of the book would be huge, but I feel sure that there would be authors capable of taking on and succeeding in the challenge. Such an encyclopaedic work would be an essential component of any good aviation library and, whilst it would be bound to be expensive, I feel sure that there would be enough people willing and able to dig deep in their pockets to fund the purchase of such a magnum opus. So does anyone know why this hasn’t happened?
By: J Boyle - 15th June 2022 at 07:34
While we are on the topic…
I would love to see several volumes of the old Putnam series updated…a major undertaking since most of the original authors have passed away and the firm’s have merged into monoliths or oblivion.
On the dust jacket of one of my newer Putnam volumes, they mention a future book on the aircraft of North American. Sadly it never appeared, I wonder where the manuscript went?
The desire for such a book is extrene, a couple of books on NAA history that have been published have sold out and bring silly sums on the secondary market. And those books are more about the corporate history instead of a in depth review of their products (and as such are lacking, IMHO).
By: dhfan - 6th June 2022 at 09:40
G.P. Putnam & Sons are part of Penguin but my 2001 reprint (reprint, not revised) of Westland etc. says Putnam Aeronautical Books, a division of Chrysalis Books.
Chrysalis have since divested themselves of non-musical enterprises and their imprints, after changing hands a few times, now seem to be part of HarperCollins.
Whether that includes Putnam Aeronautical and if any of their titles will reappear remains to be seen.
By: Arabella-Cox - 5th June 2022 at 14:55
Putnam imprint? I think now part and parcel of the Penguin Publishing Group.
By: Arabella-Cox - 5th June 2022 at 14:55
By: avion ancien - 5th June 2022 at 13:47
The points that you make, dhfan, are fair. The three volumes of the 2nd edition of ‘British Civil Aircraft’ amount to 1763 A5 pages. By way of comparison Peter Amos’ ‘Miles Aircraft’ amounts (excluding the appencices on CD ROMs) to 1326 A4 pages which, in A3 format, would be about 2650 pages. Whilst I have not put the CD ROMs into my PC to see if pages are numbered, I’d hazard a guess that, if they are, the total of those, when added to the total number of printed pages, would, at least, be in the region of the 3500 pages that you envisage for a revised and updated 3rd edition of ‘British Civil Aircraft’.
Presumably before committing to the publication of a work as extensive as ‘Miles Aircraft’, Air-Britain satisfied itself that it could, at least, cover the production and distribution costs. I suspect that if ever we are to see a 3rd edition of ‘British Civil Aircraft’, it is likely to be under the Air-Britain imprint. I envisage that this organisation would be best placed – in terms of data, resources, experience, expertise and authors – to take on such a gargantuan task. Copyright issues aside, what I do not know is whether, in the context of such a project, it would be more practical to start from scratch rather than try to revise and update Jackson’s work (in which context it’s worth noting that Peter Amos started from scratch rather than seeking to update Don Brown’s earlier Putnam monograph).
Finally am I correct in my understanding that whoever now possesses the Putnam imprint, it is not being employed either to update and revise the publisher’s earlier aviation titles or publish new ones?
By: dhfan - 5th June 2022 at 02:54
The initial problem is finding an author with the dedication and ability to research a new book. Then the original edition stretched to three volumes, a new edition would encompass pretty well exactly double the time-span of the original so would certainly need more volumes.
Could Putnam be sure of enough interest to commission a new edition?
Related to that, are they still updating any of the others in the series? My Civil Aircraft Volume 2 is 1988 and Westland is 2001. I think they’re the newest I have personally but I’ve only got about half of the series.
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June 2, 2022 at 6:07 pm