MODERN COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT

A magnificently illustrated directory of all the world's civil airliners currently in service and under development.

Special chapters examine the state of the art in aircraft technology: flight decks, cabins, airframes, and engines.

The past ten years have witnessed major technological advances in the world of civil aviation. A new generation of aircraft is being built, increasingly with the use of lightweight composite materials, and equipped with the very latest systems: fly-by-wire, 'glass' cockpits, side-stick controllers, and new quiet, fuel-efficient engines. This new full-colour encyclopedia provides a detailed analysis of the technology now being applied to commercial aircraft, a comprehensive directory of all the major passenger-carrying airliners in service and under development, and succinct data profiles of 100 of the world's major airlines.

The book opens with six chapters that examine in detail the technology of aircraft construction and operation. The first chapter, 'Anatomy of a Flight', provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes description of exactly how a London-New York passenger flight is managed, from the initial crew briefing to disembarkation at the destination. The following chapters then examine the fundamentals of aircraft manufacture, covering such topics as airliner design and construction, the flight deck, engine technology, designing the cabin, and likely developments beyond the year 2000. The authors take us step-by-step through all the major components and systems that are part of a modern commercial aircraft and explain why they are designed as they are and how they affect actual commercial operations. This section is profusely illustrated with colour and black-and-white photographs and explanatory colour diagrams that reveal just how systems operate.

The central sections of the book provide a comprehensive directory of all the major passenger- carrying aircraft and freighters in operation or under development around the world - 106 aircraft in total. Each entry includes a detailed specification table, plus narrative text on design evolution, variants and service use. Every entry includes a photograph and three-view drawing, while the 45 most important aircraft entries also include a minutely detailed cutaway drawing and a colour profile drawing in an appropriate airline livery. The final section deals with the world's major airlines. Succinct data are included for 100 airlines, covering origins, mergers, routes flown, personnel, and current fleet. Each entry is accompanied by a colour photograph showing one of the airline's fleet in its current colour scheme. It is a fitting conclusion to what can justly claim to be the most important reference work on commerical aircraft to have been published for many years.