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Aerogeek Shangri-La Airliners.net: Easily the Web's richest source of airliner fetish material. The vastness of the photo archives at this site is astonishing – well over a million pictures. The useful search engine allows you to pull up shots of a particular jetliner, right down to its specific tail number. Several subcategories showcase airports, cockpits, and —my personal favorite— interior cabin photos from airlines around the world. And you needn't be an aviation buff to appreciate the talent of the site's contributors. Some of the photography is beautiful.
Travel bug? Adventure Center: This company's small-group tours are both inexpensive and well-run. Ideal for those tired of the beaten path, but who hate getting bogged down in the time-consuming logistics of foreign travel. AC's tours take care of the boring stuff. I'll vouch for their trips to India, Egypt, and Laos among others.
Vintage Airline Commercials Airline Ads
: Thanks to its famous ":winking eye&quit; TV spot from the 1990s, I forever associate British Airways with footage of crowds in North Korean stadiums forming those enormous profiles of the Dear Leader. But did you know the music is an opera score adapted by Malcolm McLaren? Check it out for yourself, along with many others.
Airline and aircraft safety data Airsafe.com: Considering the rarity of crashes in general, the distinctions between the safest and most dangerous planes or airlines are essentially academic. But if you're comforted by comparisons or need to research accident data, Airsafe.com is the best online source. The streamlined, no-nonsense interface is pleasure to navigate.
Keith Lovegrove's Airline-Identity, Design, Culture: A favorite. Filled with great photos, this book covers everything to do with how airlines establish identity and brand presence through design.
Sky Maul: Fulfills all your in-flight shopping needs. The Brooms of the World collection is a must-have.
James Kaplan's The Airport: This beneath-the-tarmac look at the secret workings of John F. Kennedy Airport is possibly my all-time favorite work of nonfiction. The book's unsentimental vignettes show us the history, romance, and rough-and-tumble culture of that city-within-a-city on the edge of Jamaica Bay. Kaplan's narrative of the 1975 crash of Eastern flight 66 is the most elegantly suspenseful disaster chronicle you'll ever read.
Hüsker Dü Am I the only who still wishes it was 1984? The Jazz Butcher Well, okay, maybe 1986: Both of these artists make cameos in Ask the Pilot, which is no surprise —or else a really disturbing one— to those who used to know me.
Yoyoman Aviation and Music: Possibly unique on the Web, Bruno Missone's musical compositions incorporate the sounds of airplanes, flight, and airports.

The Author's Recommended Links

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