The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion

The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion, by Simon D. Beck, is an amazingly detailed and extensive reference guide to airplanes and helicopters in films and tv series, including the James Bond film series.

The book opens with a foreword by leading aviation film historian James H. Farmer and an introduction by the author Simon D Beck.

The main part of the book is divided in three sections: Section One: Feature Films, Section Two: Selected Television Series and TV Movies and Section Three: Aircraft Manufacturers.

Appendix 1 goes into Aviation Film Pilots and Technicians. Appendix II and III provide more information about aircraft collections owned by Tallmantz Aviation and Blue Max Aviation Ltd. Appendix IV details U.S. Aircraft Carriers on Film.

The book ends with detailed References and Bibliography.

The movies in the book are ordered alphabetically. For each film, the author provides some basic movie info (release date, director, cast, duration) and a synopsis / aviation content section, which sometimes is one paragraph, and sometimes a few pages long, depending on the importance of the film and amount of aircraft.

The references are well done and it's very easy to quickly find what you are looking for, either when you're looking for a film or when you're looking for a particular manufacturer and model.

The 360-page book features a special James Bond section, with detailed information about aircraft in the Bond films from Dr. No to SPECTRE.

The James Bond films are located in a special, separate "James Bond Series" section of the book. Here, due to the massive amount of aircraft in the film, the Bond films don't get a synopsis text for each film but instead the aircraft are listed in tables per film. The tables give a comprehensive overview of all aircraft in the Bond films including the serial number and or registration number (if known), as well as short remarks for who is flying/owner of the aircraft in the film or other trivia about the appearance of the aircraft in the film.

This unique book is a fascinating guide for anyone interested in aviation and films, meticulously researched and well organised.

About the author
Simon D. Beck has had a life long passion for aviation and cinema history. He works in the television industry and lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Format: softcover (7 x 10")
Pages: 360
Bibliographic Info: 87 photos, appendices, bibliography
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6349-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2293-4
Imprint: McFarland

This book was a great help when writing the recent article about the Bell 206 JetRanger Helicopter in James Bond films