Book Review: Skyliners 1-3 by George W. Hamlin

In 2016 the concept of actually publishing high quality print books on the subject of aviation almost seems obsolete, but it shouldn't be. Digital books cannot yet replicate the layout and size of non-fiction works well enough to replace them and Airliners.net, as wonderful as it is, doesn't tend to tell a story. Nonetheless new series are rare so it's just as well that there is a backlog of fabulous series, mainly dating from the 1990s. In this review we'll look at one of the best - George W. Hamlin's Skyliners series.

This series represents a high watermark in terms of high quality colour shots of rare and interesting aircraft from the 1950s and 60s. They are based around the photographic collections of George W. Hamlin himself and Mel Lawrence. The latter's slide collection especially is the cornerstone of the books as he travelled widely in the era taking photos from the numerous observation areas around at the time.

There are three books in the series organised geographically as follows:

Skyliners - Mainliners, Falcons and Flagships - Volume 1: North America
Skyliners 2: Europe & South America
Skyliners 3: A Journey to Asia

All three volumes were published between 1991 and 1995 by World Transport Press (who also published the much missed Airliners magazine) and follow the same format. Each has 120 pages with each page having a wonderful colour print. Typically there is some general text about the airport or airline plus a more detailed history about the exact airframe represented.

What really stands out in addition to the photos, which are universally excellent, is the high quality of the binding. The books are hardback, sturdy and printed on very high quality paper.

In terms of subject matter they feature a wide range of airlines and aircraft from the dawn of the jet age. This means there is, in volume 1 for example, a pleasing mix of pistonliners (DC-3s, Dc-6s, DC-7s, Connies, Strats, Convairs, Martins etc), turboprops (Viscounts, Electras, Brittanias), early jets (707s, DC-8s, Caravelles, CV-880s) and second generation jets (DC-9s, 727s, 737s).

Often almost more interesting than the aircraft is the GSE and airport architecture shown in the backgrounds from places like Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco etc. There is a great spread of airlines from the trunks, local service airlines and even Canada and Hawaii.

Skyliners volume 2 features similar high quality shots but featuring aircraft from Europe and South America. Obviously this means there is a more diverse array of aircraft including lots of Caravelles, Viscounts, Comet 4s, Ambassadors and TU-104s, amongst others.

In this volume there tends to be a lot more text than in the first but otherwise the same quality is kept up throughout. The airlines featured are equally diverse as the aircraft as you'd expect given the location.

Volume 3 rounds off the collection by featuring Asia and just as in the first two a truly unique view of the aviation scene during the 1960s is illustrated. Especially well shown are a range of relatively obscure airlines like Hang Khong Vietnam, Hong Kong Airways, Union of Burma, Air Manila, Filipinas Orient Airways, Fuji Airlines, North Japan Airlines and Finlantic as well as the expected spread of JAL, Pan Am etc. There are quite a few shots of early Cathay Pacific and All Nippon aircraft too.

It is hard to fault such a great set of books, if only all photo essay books were of such high quality in terms of both text, photos and reproduction. Despite their age these books still appear quite easily available from eBay so there's really no excuse not to own them. I'd recommend picking them up ASAP for a wonderful insight into an age when air travel still had a sense of wonder.