Rating: 
Summary: For Style Setters, Not Plane Spotters
Review: A quick flick through the pages of Airline takes you 35,000 feet up and quite a few years back through gorgeous shots of style, style, style. Fashion, fuselage and food. Even the BEA open-beef sandwich with gherkin garnish has a Pucci twist.A serious browse brings you closer to the 4711 smell of the cabins, the powerful jet propulsion and the trilling, high-class, first-class, chattering classes. A snuggle down on the sofa with a good glass of cognac, your feet tucked under you and Airline laying in your lap provides you with the right stuff - the written stuff. Oozing from every word is Keith Lovegrove's wit, passion and delight in his observation of style in the air, through the ages. Read it and fly.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Buy the book for the pictures. They're fantastic!!!!! But the text is surprisingly lightweight, with little mention about the designers or analytical discussion about the design process. I edited a comparable book called BUILDING FOR AIR TRAVEL: ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN FOR COMMERCIAL AVIATION in 1996 which has a more in-depth discussion of airline corporate identity and ailiner interiors, and acnowledgment of the designers who created them from the 1920s and 30s through the 90s. I'm surprised that as a design professional himself the author of AIRLINE didn't even cite our work which documents design history much more than his book. But, enough of history for now. If you want nice aviation related pics, this is for your library. I'll keep it in mine as a photo reference.
Rating: 
Summary: My Review
Review: For those of us who have spent thousands of hours in and traveled millions of miles on airplanes, take a look at Airline. It will turn that permanent scowl of jaded airline travel back into a playful grin (at least for a while). It's fascinating to see where the various features we take for granted came from - drink carts, flight attendant uniforms, airline company logos, the color schemes of the planes themselves. Fortunately, Lovegrove took an international perspective and not just a domestic (either UK or US) one. OK, so do I take the book on my next trip (AA BOS to LAX tonight)? Sure, and then when the plane is delayed (due to air traffic control the pilot will say) I'll lean back, smile and consider what it used to be like...
Rating:
Summary: Frequent flyers take note
Review: For those of us who have spent thousands of hours in and traveled millions of miles on airplanes, take a look at Airline. It will turn that permanent scowl of jaded airline travel back into a playful grin (at least for a while). It's fascinating to see where the various features we take for granted came from - drink carts, flight attendant uniforms, airline company logos, the color schemes of the planes themselves. Fortunately, Lovegrove took an international perspective and not just a domestic (either UK or US) one. OK, so do I take the book on my next trip (AA BOS to LAX tonight)? Sure, and then when the plane is delayed (due to air traffic control the pilot will say) I'll lean back, smile and consider what it used to be like...
Rating: 
Summary: An armchair travel experience unlike an other!
Review: Half a century ago, airline stewardesses wore double-breasted suits and perky cloth hats; in-flight refreshment consisted of a thermos of ice water; and passenger seats were fashioned out of tubular aluminum covered in wool. Today lucky air travelers are treated to fine wines, gourmet meals, personal television monitors and even the chance to sleep in a real bed, while the rest of us make do with increasingly skimpy leg room and a bag of peanuts. From utilitarian to luxury, from sensible to chic, from humdrum to kitsch, the evolution of air travel is one of the most dramatic and fascinating reflections of our changing culture, and it is colorfully and whimsically documented in this unique collection of photographs and entertaining text. Air travel has a unique, global style unlike any that exists on earth. AIRLINE examines every aspect of this style, from the exterior and interior design of planes to the advertising and haute couture. It uses hundreds of photographs and archival illustrations to show how the world has changed--and how it is in some ways very much the same. Dotted with intriguing bits of trivia and ephemera it documents the history of in-flight service and the changing role of the stewardess from nurse to sex-object and back again; shows how airlines use art and interior design to distinguish themselves from their competitors; explains the development of the class system; and features ridiculous and awe-inspiring decorating schemes (some of which never got off the ground) developed to offer travelers the ultimate in luxury at 35,000 feet. Brimming with fun and historical relevance, AIRLINE offers an armchair travel experience unlike any other--a high-altitude technicolor trip down memory lane and into a world that many of us will never enter, and that some of us know all too well.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment to this Fan of Classic Airliners
Review: I was anxiously awaiting the release of this book. I was expecting a historical book on the evolution of airliner design and culture. What I got was a very pretty, well designed book with little substance. The trivial text is written as if for a kid in junior high school. There is just no depth to Lovegrove's discussion of the evolution of airline design. I was certainly expecting some details of what it was like flying from Britain in India back in the 1930's or crossing the Atlantic on a Stratocruiser. Many of the photos are slick promotional shots used by the airlines as marketing tools. They are interesting but I wanted more HISTORICAL photos of actual cabin interiors. Nonetheless, Lovegrove did include enough enticing photos to justify giving the book three stars. However, I cannot recommend it to a serious student of classic airliner lore. There is just very little substance to warrant spending 20 bucks on this book.
Rating:
Summary: THIS IS BRILLIANT!
Review: If like me, you have a passion for airlines, that most people find somewhat weird, stop reading my review and go buy the book! This is nothing short of a great companion book, it goes everywhere with me, at home, the office, the morning commute, even the bath. The author has captured our ever chaging world through a perspective that I have never seen done so well. We all take flying to far away destinations for granted. For myself, each and everytine I board a Boeing, I cast my mind back to the first time I flew. Now I have something to trigger those memories of childhood for me. The paperback guides you through the changes that we have tended to forget. Looking in on the passage of time and style within an aircraft the reader can familierize with styles, fashions, colors and attitudes of those golden years, how we used to live, what shaped who we are today. We see how certain luxuries were traded off for volume, but how over time designers have always strived for some kind of balance. Keith Lovejoy has put together a wonderful, relaxing, comforting book that I really enjoy. This is no history project, but just a blast from the past. The photographs are great, a mix of black and white and bursts of technicolor makes each page exciting to turn. Go on, treat yourself, you will not be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: A winner!
Review: Lovegrove's excellent book covers everything that is kitsch and stylish about life at 40,000 feet - from stewardesses in mini-skirts and hot pants to the best and the worst of airline food - from the interior of Hugh Hefner's Love Bunny private jet to airline logos and posters of today and yesteryear. Buy it and wallow in the strange world of air travel. This is a must gift for anyone who has ever traveled by airplane.
Rating: 
Summary: Fashion flies!
Review: Nobody has tried to undertake such an ambitious project from the totally unique viewpoint of design. I'm an airline Captain, but the son of a graphic artist and an art historian. So it's doubly in the blood! I salivated when I heard of this book about airlines and the design/identity/graphics they've emblazoned on their unique place in transportation history. I agree with the other reviewer that it was a bit scant on text and illustrations to a certain degree. That isn't to say that it lacks for them either. Mr. Lovegrove has chosen a rather minimalist approach to his presentation. Perhaps this is due to the fact if he had tried any other way the book would be 1000's of pages long. This is not a book about airplanes nor airlines and their history. I had to keep reminding myself of this fact as I read through my copy. It is a unique attempt, through the eyes of an author who is a designer, to chronicle that element of the airlines. I commend him for this first effort. Full page photographs of stewardesses in past uniforms and unique aircraft paint schemes are accompanied by a brief textual explanation of each element. However, I was surprised that there wasn't more about airports and their design as the late 20th century has produced some monumental and creatively designed gateways (Denver, Schipol, Munich, Orlando, Hong Kong...). If you appreciate the whole package of art/design/fashion/graphics as it relates to airlines, this book is a real treat. If you're looking strictly for airline photos, history, or airplanes, there are books that better address those subject areas.
Rating:
Summary: Fashion flies!
Review: Nobody has tried to undertake such an ambitious project from the totally unique viewpoint of design. I'm an airline Captain, but the son of a graphic artist and an art historian. So it's doubly in the blood! I salivated when I heard of this book about airlines and the design/identity/graphics they've emblazoned on their unique place in transportation history. I agree with the other reviewer that it was a bit scant on text and illustrations to a certain degree. That isn't to say that it lacks for them either. Mr. Lovegrove has chosen a rather minimalist approach to his presentation. Perhaps this is due to the fact if he had tried any other way the book would be 1000's of pages long. This is not a book about airplanes nor airlines and their history. I had to keep reminding myself of this fact as I read through my copy. It is a unique attempt, through the eyes of an author who is a designer, to chronicle that element of the airlines. I commend him for this first effort. Full page photographs of stewardesses in past uniforms and unique aircraft paint schemes are accompanied by a brief textual explanation of each element. However, I was surprised that there wasn't more about airports and their design as the late 20th century has produced some monumental and creatively designed gateways (Denver, Schipol, Munich, Orlando, Hong Kong...). If you appreciate the whole package of art/design/fashion/graphics as it relates to airlines, this book is a real treat. If you're looking strictly for airline photos, history, or airplanes, there are books that better address those subject areas.
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