It only took two and a half years to assemble and submit, and four more years to get in print, but this book was an 80-page overview of the famous Douglas twinjet family, from the initial DC-9-10 to the MD-95/Boeing 717. Inside are dozens of pictures of Douglas twinjets in various liveries, along with detail pictures of interest to modelers and color profiles showing various interesting liveries the twinjets wore. Some people lent me some very interesting photographs and slides for the project, and the material I submitted was terrific. Unfortunately, matters not of my own making let it down, and that’s a longer story than I care to tell here. It should have been a much better finished product, but I did cash the check, so perhaps I have no room to complain.
Squadron/Signal wanted to make this the first in a series of titles about airliners, but since it took me this long to do the first volume, I didn’t feel like taking on the second. Another author took it up (about the Boeing 737) before the series was dropped.
A few years later I was in a hobby shop and found three copies of this book on a clearance table. The copies had been marked down several times, and were at $5.99 each when I happened across them. I bought all of them, and my personal copy still has the giant orange “clearance!” sticker on the front. You’re not truly an author until you’ve been remaindered. Now that Squadron/Signal is kaput, I doubt this book will be reprinted. I can’t say it’s a huge loss. I’m glad I did this book, but it taught me some hard lessons, and made me very careful about future projects. (I’m down to only my personal copy, so please don’t ask if I have any for sale. I don’t.)
To this day there’s a perception in certain circles that I’m a DC-9 expert or that it’s my favorite airplane. I’m no DC-9 expert (although I’ve flown on several Nines and their progeny), and the Nine is but one of several airplanes that interest me. But, it happens still.