A Letter from the Publisher

If I can take a moment of your time I would like to tell you about some exciting projects that are maturing at Australian Aviation.

Firstly, this edition marks our tenth anniversary of publication (we like to think of it as being ten years young). Secondly, we have embarked on a new course via book publishing. Several years back we investigated this avenue of publishing but for various technical reasons, we decided not to pursue this market. Times, and circumstances, have changed though and with it a new style of book. And as always this magazine will lead the field in being able to provide you with an eventual range of high quality, good value aviation books.

Our first book is entitled “Australia’s Military Aircraft” and as the name implies it is a compendium of every aircraft ever used by Australia’s army, navy and air force. This, to our knowledge, has never been attempted before and to enhance its value we have spared no expense in ensuring that the overall pictorial content matches the topic. To this end, there are some 50 colour prints and over 250 black and white photos in this unique reference work of more than 200 pages.

Each aircraft is described via a data table, supported by commentaries discussing the acquisition, employment and ultimate fate of all front and second-echelon aircraft. Special appendices also list the squadrons and their aircraft from 1939 to 1945, aircraft losses from 1942 to 1945 and postwar squadron details. All in all a vital, indeed unique, Australian reference work that is also being marketed at a highly affordable price. Hopefully we have wetted your appetite, so now turn to pages 26 and 27 for more information. We plan to publish two books a year, roughly at six monthly intervals and we hope they will fulfil a market requirement that our research indicates has never before been adequately catered for.

The other major item of news is that we have linked up with Torii Tours, one of Australia’s most respected specialist tour operators, to offer high-value package tours to the world’s major aviation events.

Certainly, this has all been done before but a new tack we are taking is to offer a complementary itinerary for your better half. We appreciate that not everybody’s wife wants to spend her days overseas inspecting lines of Mustangs, Bearcats and Spitfires or even the more modern kit at Farn- borough or Le Bourget. So to ensure that you can give her a reason to make the trip with you, we have also catered for the non-aviation traveller.

Plans are still unfolding, though we hope next year to be able to bring you the best value aviation tours you have seen for Oshkosh (July/August) and Farnborough (Aug/Sept). Naturally, each tour will also be escorted by an aviation identity from this magazine in addition to a highly trained tour guide from Torii Tours.

So there we have it – ten years young and two new and exciting projects ready to launch us into our second decade of publication. We would also like to thank you, our reader, for your loyal support over the past decade and we look forward to serving you in the years ahead.

Yours faithfully

JIM THORN

Managing Editor