AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED versus COMBAT AIRCRAFT

Message posted by Norio Hayakawa on July 10, 2006 at 22:32:24 PST:

There are now two aviation magazines using Joerg's panoramic photos!! Both of them are now on the magazine racks of major bookstores, such as at your local Borders Bookstore. I am not sure if Joerg is aware of this.

One is the June issue of AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED.
The other is the July issue of COMBAT AIRCRAFT.

The article written by Joerg Arnu is in the June issue of AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED.
The July issue of COMBAT AIRCRAFT does not have Joerg's article but an article written by a totally different person.

Here is the difference.
Joerg's article describes in specific details the present day Area 51 base. It's the best, most updated, unprecedented, detailed description of Area 51 ever published in any magazine.
The print quality of AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED, to me, is much better than COMBAT AIRCRAFT.
In addition to that, AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED makes a great use of many latest satellite images provided by DigitalGlobe. The high resolution close-up satellite image of the base is the best ever that I have seen in any magazine.

As far as the July issue of COMBAT AIRCRAFT is concerned, yes, it is a good article too, but written by another person. However, the article in COMBAT AIRCRAFT deals mainly with the history of Groom Lake base, not that the history is not important. There are already quite a number of excellent history of Area 51 written already by such as our own Peter Merlin.
Therefore, comparing the two magazines, I prefer the article written by Joerg Arnu in AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED.
I guess I am biased.

If I were part of the defense contractors at Area 51, I would be more impressed at Joerg's detailed description of the base as it appeared in AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED than the history of Groom Lake that appeared in COMBAT AIRCRAFT, both using Joerg's panoramic photos.

I here bring up an interesting thing.
In May of 1997, POPULAR SCIENCE came out with Bill Sweetman's article on electrochromatic panels technology being researched at Area 51 and the fact that Groom Lake was still quite active with many, new and ongoing programs.

Then, strangely, a similar magazine, POPULAR MECHANICS came out the following month (June of 1997) with the now notorious Jim Wilson article saying that Area 51's operations have moved to Utah.
More people bought that POPULAR MECHANICS magazine and bought the story itself. That was the start of the false rumor that Area 51's base was closed and moved to Utah.

To the defense contractors at Area 51, if I may, POPULAR MECHANICS' article was a God-sent. The rest is history.

So, between Joerg's unprecedented, detailed description of Area 51 that appeared in the June issue of AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATED and the history of Groom Lake that appeared in the July issue of COMBAT AIRCRAFT (both magazines are simultaneously and currently available at magazine racks of major bookstores such as Borders), if I were the Air Force or part of the contractors at Area 51, which would I rather have the people not read?
You know my answer. LOL

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