Soviet-Era Airliners: The Final Three Decades: HCAS volume 1 softcover
Soviet-Era Airliners: The Final Three Decades: Historic Commercial Aircraft Series: Volume 1 softcover
When the Soviet Union fell in December 1991, there were close to 3,500 assorted Soviet-built airliners that could be deemed operational - more than there had ever been before. The vast majority of these Antonovs, Ilyushins, Tupolevs, and Yaks flew for Aeroflot, and were scattered far and wide at bases across the Soviet Union. Thirty years later, they have almost all disappeared. Now dominated by state-of-the-art Airbuses and Boeings, the world's airports and airways will never be the same again without the noise, smoke and charisma of these iconic designs from Soviet times. This book follows the fortunes of the great Soviet airliners over the last three decades and looks at what happened to this immense fleet: the fragmentation of Aeroflot into a myriad of new operators in the 1990s, the bankruptcies and consolidation of so many airlines that followed, and then the slow, inevitable disappearance of these aircraft from our skies. Illustrated with 220 photographs, most of which have never been published before, and supported by many anecdotes, facts and figures, this book conveys the nostalgia and wonder of this special, tumultuous time in aviation history.
Published June 2022, 128 pages, (220+ all colour photographs), softcover, 9 3/4 inches x 6 3.4 inches
CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY's career has included time working for an airline in Martinique, French West Indies, commercial and management positions with de Havilland Canada in Toronto, and senior management positions with Airbus in Toulouse. He has served as a director on the boards of several companies, including Nordic Aviation Capital in Denmark, Emerald Airlines in Ireland, and Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) in Germany. Passionate about anything aeronautical for as long as he can remember, Buckley has written some 25 feature articles for Propliner magazine, often about his many adventures in old propeller-driven airliners that are still flying in remote parts of the world. His book Soviet-Era Airliners was published in 2021. In 2019, he was honored by the French government when he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite for services to France.
