Declining quality of British aviation magazines

[Jukka Juutinen]

Yesterday I was at a magazine retailer and I took a look at the latest (January 2018) issue of Aeroplane. I have browsed a few issues from the last year and the feeling I had back was not abated by the latest issue: once a great magazine has become pretty useless trash. The same applies to the other "major" British avmag FlyPast. Aeroplane used to be great until late 1990s. Article series like Per Mare Probare, Probe Probare, On Silver Wings and Limited Editions were excellent examples of high-quality writing based on primary research.

Back then text was the mainstay of articles with illustrations to support the text. Today both above mentioned mags are filled with eye candy of limited informational value and the text seems to be mishmash of secondary quality and originality. Far too much space is wasted on warbirds and museum aircraft.

Yet, one does not need even to cross the Channel to see two examples of how it could be done. After the Battle magazine is one example, Cross and Cockade the other.

Then one may ask that why can't British publishers achieve the quality of French Batailles aeriennes or Avions? Do French readers have longer attention spans than British?

As a final note, I should mention the potentially promising British The Aviation Historian. I say potentially because the editorial policy so far has been so-and-so with totally uninteresting stuff like remembrances of some air stewardess or a piece on Hugh Hefner's aircraft. Sheesh! And even they have succumbed to the cancer of designing layout from the point of colourful eye candy instead informational value.