S.E. 210 Caravelle: A Legends of Flight Illustrated History: 8 (Legends of Flight, 8)

This book follows in the tradition of all the titles in this series by the author Wolfgang Borgmann, of having grainy images. This is very disappointing. I had long anticipated the arrival of this book, but was left disappointed on account of the photos. The grainy image of the MEA Caravelle VI-N on pp 70 is typical of what I am talking about. The book is full of such photos where quality is concerned. The photos look like enlargements of prints and are hazy. There are very few slide reproductions in the book. A little extra painstaking picture research for suitable photos would have nixed the problem. I have 8 out of 9 titles in this series and all of them suffer from the same malady. Photos of simulators generally turn me off and all 5 "cockpit " photos in the book are of them. The Flight Engineer and Navigator's stations as well as the pilots' overhead panel have not been shown. Creditably, most of the images in the book are previously unseen but virtually half of them are in black and white ( which is perhaps inevitable, given the Caravelle's status as a classic jet ). The color photo on pp 31 took me back to the 1970s when I often saw this classic profile in Indian skies. I found the photograph evocative and highly nostalgic. However, despite the promotion on the back cover, there are zero photos of the Caravelle in Indian Airlines colors, something I had looked forward to seeing in the book. The author's observation that "in its 58 - year existence, the airline has lost a total of 60 aircraft and 882 people lost their lives" is telling indeed and is certainly nothing to be proud of.There are 10 pp devoted to menus.Monographs on classic airliners are few and far between and this is the only one I've actually seen of the Caravelle so far. There is only one other book on the Caravelle that I have heard of. It is by the late John Wegg, erstwhile editor of Airways magazine and Caravelle exponent. This is a 576 pp Bible of the Caravelle containing a comprehensive account of the type, down to the minutest detail. It is the definitive work on the aircraft and is mostly in color. The tragedy is that the book is a limited edition of 200 copies, published in 2005, priced at U$199.95 plus another equal amount for international shipping of such a heavy book ( it weighs more than 6.5 pounds ). Even if you had the wish and the wherewithal at your disposal to buy it, the book is still impossible to obtain. Sellers refuse to ship this particular book outside the UK, perhaps because of its excessive weight. Most of the copies have been shrewdly printed in French ( the Caravelle after all, was and is the pride of France ), with an eye on the French collector. English editions of the book are super rare. Lastly, and for whatever it's worth, the book is out of print. There is one more book on the Caravelle which has just been published in the Great Airlines series (sic). It is not available on Amazon.in Its international shipping costs are double its price.In this scenario, the book under review is one to be bought and read, whatever its faults. It is what it is.

I bought this book as a gift. It was on my friends wish list. He was happy with it!

Good read great photos