Demise of Classic Aircraft

I thought FlyPast was dire in the Ken Delve days, full of endless bloody Canberra articles every month 🙁

Yes, and now its endless bloody Spitfires etc every month!

I thought FlyPast was dire in the Ken Delve days, full of endless bloody Canberra articles every month 🙁

Yes, and Vulcan ones too!

Mike / Dave

forgot about that period, wonder why?

You have forgotten the endless articles on the U.S Navy Dauntless and Wildcat recoveries as well !

Still think Flypast have missed something here and should extend their remit a bit

I thought FlyPast was dire in the Ken Delve days, full of endless bloody Canberra articles every month 🙁

Never looked at Aviation News, please correct me if im wrong but the letter that comes with the sub makes it sound as if they are going back to the old AI format ……which is why i used to buy it. Ill keep the sub open and see what happens in a few months time.

Still think Flypast have missed something here and should extend their remit a bit

Just had my subscription issue drop through the letterbox with a letter enclosed explaining that CA was being incorporated into Aviation News. Also informed me that I would receive the balance of my subscription (3 copies) as Aviation News plus two further free copies. They also offered an alternative if I did not want AN of Flypast, AFM, Airliner World or Air International. So not all bad news though I will miss Clasic Aircraft in its current form.

I will look forward to seeing the same quality of post war aviation articles as we have seen in Classic Aircraft, in Aviation News from January!
How’s that for optimism!

Classic Aircraft

Just had my subscription issue drop through the letterbox with a letter enclosed explaining that CA was being incorporated into Aviation News. Also informed me that I would receive the balance of my subscription (3 copies) as Aviation News plus two further free copies. They also offered an alternative if I did not want AN of Flypast, AFM, Airliner World or Air International. So not all bad news though I will miss Clasic Aircraft in its current form.

Anybody ever had an idea how many readers CA had ? and this compared to Flypast, AeroplaneMonthly, Air Enthusiast, …

Obviously any hard copy printing will come under increased pressure and lower volumes means higher print costs and that’s a vicious circle from which it’s difficult to get out as higher print costs inevitably means higher newsstand prices.
I understand that it will not please everybody but is there any sense in going all-digital? That would turn things more into a blog-style thing or even a PDF version but it would still provide readers with information on the post-war era and the warbird scene.

Posts on other fora seem to indicate that CA is being incorporated into Aviation News. 😉

This is a joke!!
Air Enthusiast was supposed to be incorporated into Air International……….and never was, ever!

Maybe -some would argue that Aircraft Illustrated was by far their best performing aircraft brand. Dump readership and that effect ripples through the whole group. Either way the changing of AI to CA was an error .

Posts on other fora seem to indicate that CA is being incorporated into Aviation News. 😉

So now we’ll have Air Pictorial, Aviation News and Aircraft Illustrated all between a single set of covers. Lucky us! 😉

I am sure Ian Allen explored the future of the magazine -possibly lamented the day it ever decided to chance name from Aircraft Illustrated and took the decision to ditch it!

It is hard to read anything into this, as Ian Allan in fact disposed of their entire magazine portfolio to Key in one fell swoop rather than divesting themselves of individual titles.

http://www.keypublishing.com/view_news.asp?ID=4970

Posts on other fora seem to indicate that CA is being incorporated into Aviation News. 😉

Air Enthusiast was supported by Key probably long after it made any money at all! Much as I enjoyed it I am also a realist in that I cannot expect a publishing group to sell magazines that make no money!
On a similar tack Classic survived for a very long time as Aircraft Illustrated and judging by the comments on her not everyone was keen on it becoming another historic mainstream title. I am sure Ian Allen explored the future of the magazine -possibly lamented the day it ever decided to chance name from Aircraft Illustrated and took the decision to ditch it!
In all of this people seem to look at Key as some kind of benelovent organisation that must keep their magazine going no matter what ! The simple reality is that the market is very competitive and a number of jobs rely on being successful . All of that success means that the likes of forums can be funded. So sad as it is to see CA go -the leasons of why it isn’t still around are clear to see !

I dont think you can blame Key – clearly the previous owner (Ian Allan) didnt want it. Why would Key want the same magazine twice? As David says, they bought the archive.

Jets has been bi monthly from the start, though as much of what it does is also covered by Aeroplane, also from Kelsey, I do wonder….

Bruce

Bruce – I beg to differ having purchased every issue of “Jets” it was monthly for a significant period although the publication date bounced around a bit!!

…… I thought Classic Aircraft was excellent, well laid out with many rare post WW2 colour photos and good features mostly written by Ben Dunnell. If Flypast is to change, it needs to include the best of Classic Aircraft to provide a more balanced magazine.

My thoughts as well,I used to be a subscriber to Flypast,put stopped a few yearsd ago,mainly due to the fact that they seemed to rehash the ‘such and such battle etc’,and when they did cover preservation topics,they were never in much depth for some reason,especially the American focussed ones. I am afraid Frank B Mormillo doesn’t do it for me!

However when AI swapped to the Classic format,I thought here’s the one for me! It covered different topics,in good detail and the more modern preservation scene was excellently covered.

I will be sorry to see it finish, as has been said ,I hope that Flypast picks the best of the Classic article style and covers them as well,please Key change some of your contributors and I may start buying it again…..

So lets hope that people in Key Publishing product management read their own forum and learn something.

I also agree that Air Enthusiast was a superb publication and I’m still buying copies of that whenever a missing issue appears on infamous Ebay. For some things you just need a hard copy.

I also think that a magazine such as CA has its place in the market and even could be a economically viable project but probably with Key Publishing management overhead that becomes a different story. (sorry for putting myself in the armchair flying seat here…just venting frustration).. alas… we can only file those quality magazines in the archive and have another binder of a great discontinued publication.

Yes, that (IMHO) is when it all went wrong for “AI”.
But, once AI became “Classic Aircraft”, it was all too similar to Flypast or Aeroplane Monthly.
Paul F

I cannot see how Classic and Flypast were remotely similar! Classic always has a balance between Post war Jets and WW2 and pre war subjects; with the accent on the post war both civil and military. Take a look at the contents of the Flypast December issue, and the November issue of Classic Aircraft. They are poles apart.
I agree that the way forward is for Flypast to try for a balance between the two.

How right you are Graham to mention Air Enthusiast. What a loss that was! and how superbly balanced.

As a definitie oldie, but born after WW2, I can’t agree that a J79 is any more interesting than a Merlin! However, that out of the way, I can’t help feeling that there are many more aircraft (and modelling) magazines around than there were (say) 20 years ago, so complaining about their death feels a touch premature. If anything it seems to have become too easy to produce a magazine, with news and information spread thinly over too many sources.

What I do feel currently lacking is a high quality historical magazine such as Air Enthusiast – Quarterly as was. None of the other magazines have quite achieved that depth and width – the much-loved (here) Flypast always seemed superficial to me, relying upon at times doubtful anecdote rather than hard fact.

I had a quick look at the new Air Historian but it didn’t “bite”, perhaps I should give it another try.