Greenhill, 2002, 25.00 pounds, ISBN 1-85367-490-7, 382 pages, hardback

This book proudly places "Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum" over the title. I was curious why until I read the blurb that noted Bell is the curator of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM).

The directory boasts listings for 25,000 aircraft from 5,000 manufacturers. I daresay you won't find a more complete list. Indeed the introduction notes, "Successful flight is not a pre-requisite for inclusion." There's a long list of people credited for compiling the list.

The book divides into two sections: Aircraft in alphabetical order by aircraft company (page 13-316) and then Aircraft by alphabetical aircraft name (page 317-382).

The typical listing offers company name, US city and state (or country, if not US), a list of aircraft produced and whether the NASM had-or has-one in its collection. For example:

Abrams Aircraft Corp (Lansing, MI)
Abrams Explorer
Abrams Explorer, NASM

For larger manufacturers, there's a short company bio.

At the back end, each aircraft name gets listed, with a list of aircraft using that name. For example:

Mustang (see also Midget Mustang, Thunder Mustang, and Twin Mustang)
Bushby M-II
CAC
Cavalier
Historical Aircraft Corp
Jurca MJ-77
Mooney
North American F-6, P-51
Sturgeon

So all us American-centric folks may associate Mustang with P-51, but several other companies laid claim to the name as well.

Be that as it may, and with a tip of the hat to the research, I am not sure what you'd actually use the book for. Maybe there's a corporate use for naming a new aircraft? There no specs, a dozen or so photos with extended captions, and that's about it. Visualize a phone book with only names.

But just as I was about to write this off, along comes a stumper...to me, anyway. During WWII, a lot of "P-43" aircraft were shipped to the AVG (American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers) in China. However, a lot of them ended up in Karachi, India (now Pakistan). I had never heard of a P-43, but then again, I'm not an aircraft scholar.

So I opened the Directory and looked in the back under aircraft names, flicked to the "P" section and...no P-43. In fact, no P-47, P-40, or any other P-designation. "Thunderbolt" leads you to P-47 and "Tomahawk" gets you to P-40, but if you've just got a P-designation, you're out of luck.

There's a happy ending, albeit one with a brute force approach. I started hitting all the main US manufacturers looking for a P-43 designation. I found several P-43A, P-43B, etc under Republic P-43 Lancer. If you knew that before, give yourself a medal. If you can name the other five "Lancer" designations, you must be named Dana Bell.

This is strictly for aircraft enthusiasts. Mind you, I find it an impressive compilation of work. It is very specific and niche, so I'm not quite sure who would want a complete list of every aircraft ever produced--other than those history buffs trying to discover an obscure fact as I did above, or perhaps the media to doublecheck facts. Thus, if you want such a list, this directory will send you into a drooling frenzy. It's that good and that complete.

For you "Lancer" buffs...the five aircraft in addition to the North American P-43 are:

Aerostar (Romainia) MiG-21
Champion (Wisconsin) *
Lancair **
Marquart MA-4
Rockwell B-1

* Note: Aircraft by name says "Lancair." The main company name list says "Lancair 200."
** Note: Aircraft by name says "Champion (Wisconsin)." The main company name list says "402 Lancer."