Janes' book on missiles from the 1970s

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Maury Markowitz

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When I was a kid I had a copy of a Janes' book on guided missiles. I thought it was called "All the World's Missiles" but that doesn't turn up anything in google. One called "Pocket Book of Missiles" does, but that doesn't seem to ring a bell.

I do recall one distinctive thing, the cover. It was an image of a Mirage (III?) flying to the right side of the cover while launching a large (bright red?) missile of some sort (don't think it was a Magic) with a startlingly blue sky behind it.

Does anyone recall this book? I think it was relatively widely available, I recall seeing it in book stores and libraries some years later.
 
Missiles of the World, by Michel J.H. and John W.R. Taylor. Cover is a Mirage IIIE firing a red Martel. I've got a copy on my shelf!
 
I am surprised that Janes does not republish the Missiles of the world book now, I am sure that there will be lots more new information about some of the missiles and of course brand new missiles that were not around when the book was first released.
 
Technically it wasn't actually a Janes book, it was just written by two well-known Janes contributors. As for the present day, most of our reference stuff is now online, with only some of the gigantoid encyclopedias like Fighting Ships still physically printed.
 
SOC said:
Technically it wasn't actually a Janes book, it was just written by two well-known Janes contributors. As for the present day, most of our reference stuff is now online, with only some of the gigantoid encyclopedias like Fighting Ships still physically printed.
Click to expand...

Gone are the day's SOC sadly. :(
 
Weapons: Air-Launched 22/23 Yearbook £1,214.00

Sadly a little out of my price band.
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Weapons: Air-Launched 22/23 Yearbook £1,214.00
Click to expand...
Unmanned Maritime Vehicles 22/23 Yearbook - 400+ vehicles for £1,002... so just about £2.5 per entry.

All The World's Aircraft: Development & Production is now £1,387, All The World's Aircraft: In Service (if you want legacy types) is £1,214 and if you want the unmanned aircraft volume need to stump up another £1,214....

How the hell do Jane's rack up such high prices? Is it artificially high to keep the plebs out or are they bound with golden unicorn hair?

Even assuming research (going round trade fairs and picking up brochures and judicious words in the right ear hole) costs money, 90% is going to be identical to the previous volume with some updates.
 
They are priced for libraries, universities and companies not end users. Though few public libraries still carry them sadly.
 
Hood said:
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Weapons: Air-Launched 22/23 Yearbook £1,214.00
Click to expand...
Unmanned Maritime Vehicles 22/23 Yearbook - 400+ vehicles for £1,002... so just about £2.5 per entry.

All The World's Aircraft: Development & Production is now £1,387, All The World's Aircraft: In Service (if you want legacy types) is £1,214 and if you want the unmanned aircraft volume need to stump up another £1,214....

How the hell do Jane's rack up such high prices? Is it artificially high to keep the plebs out or are they bound with golden unicorn hair?

Even assuming research (going round trade fairs and picking up brochures and judicious words in the right ear hole) costs money, 90% is going to be identical to the previous volume with some updates.
Click to expand...

They kind of got caught in a spiral starting in the 1990s -- shrinking buyer's market for print (thanks to the Internet), higher production costs (large hardcovers are expensive to make), declining budgets for libraries, etc.

And then they killed their largest print customer (US DoD) by providing an online service that eliminated the need for every DoD base library to have physical copies.
 
Hood said:
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Weapons: Air-Launched 22/23 Yearbook £1,214.00
Click to expand...
Unmanned Maritime Vehicles 22/23 Yearbook - 400+ vehicles for £1,002... so just about £2.5 per entry.

All The World's Aircraft: Development & Production is now £1,387, All The World's Aircraft: In Service (if you want legacy types) is £1,214 and if you want the unmanned aircraft volume need to stump up another £1,214....

How the hell do Jane's rack up such high prices? Is it artificially high to keep the plebs out or are they bound with golden unicorn hair?

Even assuming research (going round trade fairs and picking up brochures and judicious words in the right ear hole) costs money, 90% is going to be identical to the previous volume with some updates.
Click to expand...

This is Jane's we're talking about. The best of the best!

Updates? Didn't you read the description? These books are not for the casual reader.
 
They are only in the market for high end defence companies and governments, individuals have long been out of the picture and even researchers would have to go some way to justify the outlay. I must admit that I would have hoped there would be something for the enthusiast in the archives but sadly, they do not agree and that resource appears lost.
 
edwest2 said:
Hood said:
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Weapons: Air-Launched 22/23 Yearbook £1,214.00
Click to expand...
Unmanned Maritime Vehicles 22/23 Yearbook - 400+ vehicles for £1,002... so just about £2.5 per entry.

All The World's Aircraft: Development & Production is now £1,387, All The World's Aircraft: In Service (if you want legacy types) is £1,214 and if you want the unmanned aircraft volume need to stump up another £1,214....

How the hell do Jane's rack up such high prices? Is it artificially high to keep the plebs out or are they bound with golden unicorn hair?

Even assuming research (going round trade fairs and picking up brochures and judicious words in the right ear hole) costs money, 90% is going to be identical to the previous volume with some updates.
Click to expand...

This is Jane's we're talking about. The best of the best!

Updates? Didn't you read the description? These books are not for the casual reader.
Click to expand...
Yes, but I first learned of the existence of Jane's at a college library. Neither my parents nor I had the means for an education-but I think it is still vital to have physical media that can get the attention of passers-by.
 
edwest2 said:
Updates? Didn't you read the description? These books are not for the casual reader.
Click to expand...
It's a yearbook.... therefore you assume they update it every year....
 

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