Brian Stainer's 'Aviation Photo News'
&
Alan W Hall's 'Aviation News' magazine

My early days with an interest in (military) aviation, still in school, were mostly fed by English magazine. The Dutch magazines such as Avia were written much like glossy fashion- and homestyle magazines, with articles about the aviation industry and interviews of 'captains of (Dutch) industry', e.g. J.M.Schröder (founder of Martinair Holland). Those magazines did not go down to 'streetlevel' and had little to do with 'plane spotters' and their photography, though Hugo Hooftman's 'Cockpit'-magazine did bring to some extend news that was useful for the roaming plane spotter.
I only became aware of the Dutch spotters magazine 'Scramble' during the early 1980s. I also subscribed to two US publications: US Naval Aviation News and Air Force magazine; the trouble I had to go through for the annual payments, with International Money Orders!

So for my military aviation interest I subscribed to the South East Air Review (published by non-profit aviation enthusiasts organized in the West London Aviation Group), Air Enthusiast (a quality monthly magazine) and Aviation News.
By the time I subscribed to the latter it was a bi-weekly tabloid-size (to use a term much less in fashion in those days, the 1970s) publication. The paper it was printed on was akin that of newspapers and the photographs were printed in black & white. Postal services had 'their way' with it, I often received it worse for wear.
It later developed to the more traditional appearance of a magazine.

For a short while I was able to recoup some of my subscription expenses (which were considerable for my budget in those days!) by the photos I sent them and had them printed; this was during the start of my career in civil aviation and they printed my photographs of airliners taken at Amsterdam IAP too, so the magazine dealt with both civil as well as military aviation.

I recently (Feb.2016) received a kind gift from someone, which brought this all back to me. I did not save the Aviation News magazines, as the quality did not warrant that; the paper was that newspaper quality that finds the fish & chips in the next day, after the news had gone stale - it did not include articles worth saving, if I remember correctly.
While the South East Air Review did not (or if they did, very few) publish any photographs by spotters, the Aviation News did.

The gift I received is a 01Feb1970 (stamped 29Feb1970) copy, 'Order No 79', and seems limited to
photos available from Brian Stainer's 'Aeronautical Photo Agency'. While 'Aviation News' was set up by one Alan
Hall, APN was a solid contributor and always took up space within the Aviation News publication.

Donated by Frank van de Peppel

Size is 20x25cm

Aviation Photo News - Aeronautical Photo Agency (B.N. Stainer)

It would be interesting to collect some memories here, I thought. Remembering the days when aviation news only went as fast as a phonecall and photos had to be printed and were sent through the post office.
To start with I found a (30Mar2009) remark posted on a forum: "Brian Stainer, I believe, sold up the Aviation Photo News collection a few years ago now; I think, to retire."
This was followed by:
[Thu. 10Dec2009] "I have just heard that Brian Stainer passed away a few weeks ago.
For those that didn't know him, Brian was a fireman at Heathrow in the 1950s which gave him great opportunities for photographing all the glorious early piston airliners on the apron.
In 1956 he started up a photo service called Aviation Photo News and published monthly lists of photos for sale.
He left the fire service and went full-time with APN, with professional cameras producing quality b/w negatives.
Air Pictorial provided him with press facilities at Heathrow, enabling him to continue having access in order to publish his photos in magazines.
He gave up APN in the late '70s and sold all his slides, keeping his thousands of beloved b/w negatives for a while, but then sold all those as ill health took its toll."
This met following reply:"I remember Brian's photo lists well before competitors such as MAP came on the scene. When Alan Hall set up Aviation News, published initially as a fortnightly news paper, it always included a full page of Brian's APN photos and their collaboration made a success of its launch. In later years Brian used to sell his prints at shows from a tent set up beside his Reliant car and his faithful dog would lie there patiently wending away the day."

My memory of the South East Air Review as a series of A4-sized sheets printed with long lists of tailnumbers (report sightings) and serials, stapled together without much photography, well my memory may be at fault here (or the SEAR may have developed after I ended my subscription at some point), for I read this comment: "I recall buying many 116 size black and white pics from Brian Stainer at the West London Aviation Group meetings, near Heathrow, at sixpence a pop (old money), as well as ordering more from the APN lists.
I still have them here somewhere. He also supplied pics for the WLAG magazine, South East Air Review for some considerable time."
"If anyone has the Autumn 1985 issue of Propliner Magazine, there is a profile feature on Brian called 'ShutterKings'.

Brian Stainer was at the fence of LHR when a BOAC Boeing 707 came in to make a crash landing with an engine on fire and fully ablaze! As the aircraft came to rest, it was fully ablaze and passengers were starting to evacuate with the chutes. As the fire engines raced to the scene, Brian leapt (well something like that) the fence with cameras in hand and approached the burning aircraft. This event was well documented thanks to him. Full details and one of Brian's photos can be found here: en.wikipedia.org:_BOAC_Flight_712

Alan W. Hall passed away at Mater Dei Hospital, Malta, on 06Nov2008.
He was reported as ".. one of the major figures in aviation publishing for as long as any of us can remember. First editor of Airfix Magazine, creator of Aviation News, Scale Aircraft Modelling (SAM) and Warpaint Books." His aviation library was handed to the Malta Aviation Society.

Someone wrote (2008):"What an excellent publication the old newspaper style Aviation News was , had many a photo published in that in the good old days of 35mm and black and white!"
Another:"As a kid I always thought Aviation News was the Bees Knees. As a Teen I went quite often to the Aviation Bookshop in Holloway Rd, to pick up the old 'paper style' versions to add to my collection."

The magazine changed from a newspaper-style publication to a more traditional magazine type

£1,95 in 1985, with a special review of the RAF in that year.  £1,60 in 1992.
And, while still a fortnightly publication, Aviation News cost £1,95 in 1995. From http://forums.airshows.co.uk/

Comments welcomed! EMAIL (plse include the link/url)

See also my page on the early reference books for aviation enthusiasts! HERE..

There were others who sold slides, photo prints and B&W negatives. I remember ordering them from A.J. Brown (in memoriam) in England, but I did not keep his lists. I preferred swapping my slides and negatives with correspondents all over the world.
Among material donated by Frank van de Peppel I found two Scandinavian sellers of aviation photos and slides. For many years I subscribed to the Aviation-Letter for aviation news.

Aviation-Letter Photo Service, Feb. 1970

Color slides for sale by F. Nielsen (Brønshøj/Copenhagen, Denmark), Jan. 1971

Derek Lepper wrote me in Dec.2025: "While looking at one of the many aviation photographs I have I noticed the stamp on the back of one, 'West London Aviation Group Photograph, 56 Tachbrook Road, Feltham, Middlesex". I did an internet search and came to your web site. In the early 1960s I very often went to airports and airfields all over England and northern Europe. I remember meeting Brian Stainer at London Airport and buying hundreds of photos from his Aviation Photo News. Your web page 'aviation_photo_news-remembered' brings back some of those memories!" dereklepper.com (architecture) Derek: "In the late 1950s and '60s I grew up in Hertfordshire. At that time aviation was growing all around. Particularly since there was a new race for military aircraft and that time was the start of jet engines in civil aircraft. As you know the area where I lived was surrounded with airfields, aerodromes and airports. Handley Page was building the Victor and de Havilland the Comet; both Hatfield and Radlett were just a short bike ride away. My closest was Elstree, less than 10 km. London Airport was 30 km, so I rode my bike there many times, as well as taking the bus, many times too. I collected maps and dreamed of travel all over the world..." Derek: "My immediate next door neighbours was a virtually exact duplicate of my family. The Bernson's had four children, two boys and two girls. Their oldest daughter, Marije, was older than Onno and born 3 days after me. Onno tragically died in his mid twenties from a shock from an injection he'd received for his continuing asthma. Onno and I both spotted aircraft! Their grandparents on, I suppose, his mother's side were de Vries from Apeldoorn. In 1963, when we were 17, Onno invited me to Apeldoorn for a holiday, staying at his grandparents house. He went ahead and I followed in August that year. I flew from Southend to Rotterdam on a British United Air Ferries Bristol 170 Freighter, along with a few cars on the lower deck. The flight was full and I went over on the jump seat in the cockpit. Mr de Vries met us in his Chevrolet Impala and we cruised to their very nice house. De Vries owned Venz chocolate and there were boxes of small bars of chocolate all over the house! I was in heaven. Onno and I purchased a Dutch Rail pass and went all over the Netherlands. This is where it becomes certifiably insane... I have been with my wife now for 50 years, we are both in good health and we continue to travel. But, although I lived in London until 1969, then went to Los Angeles for a few years (next Montreal for 20 years and now on the west coast of Canada for the past 25 years), I still have my little notebook from that time! I arrived in Rotterdam on the 16th August, 1963. The next day we went to Teuge. By the 18th we were in Groningen, where we saw Do-27-Q4 PH-ACT, a Norwegian M.S.260 Super Brousard owned by Wideroes, a few DH 82A Tiger Moths and the many Safir and Beech 18 aircraft of the flying school. I think we slept on the train because the next day we were in Eindhoven. From there we went over to Köln/Bonn, and on to Dusseldorf. We went back into the Netherlands and to Maastricht on the 20th. Not much there: a Cessna 172, PH-LAC, a Tiger Moth, PH-UAE and a Cub PH-NCV. On to Hilversum. The 22nd found us at Schiphol. Mr de Vries had organised a tour of the Fokker factory where they were assembling F-104s. Our around the airport brought various KLM Super Constellations, DC-6s and 7s and DC-8s. Also a PanAm DC-8, et cetera. On the 23rd I was back in Rotterdam; then on again to Southend in Bristol Freighter G-ANVS.  Nine days later I was back at London Airport. A week later it was Gatwick, Redhill, Biggin Hill. It just went on and on. I still have my brass 18x telescope I bought in London, as well as many of the old books! I must say that when I found myself in the music business in London in the crazy 1960s, my mania for aviation declined. Yet the interest soon came back. I took flying lessons in the mid-1970s, in Los Angeles, and passed the FAA written exam but never accumulated the necessary hours to get a PPL. In Montreal when I started working as a commercial photographer, I looked for work and found it in the aviation industry. My interest continues to this day. There is something particular about people that love aviation, aircraft and flying. It stays with them. It auxiliarates them. It's perhaps a bit like other particular interests. Those that have it and those that just don't even see it." All the best, Derek. [10Dec2025] Here's my (RL) membership card for the WLAG: Every month I was looking forward to receiving their newsletter, The Southeast Air Review.