R. E. G. Davies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ronald Edward George Davies (born 1921) is an specialist in airline and air transport history. His expertise also extends to commercial aviation economic research. He worked for the Ministry of Civil Aviation and British European Airways, then for the Bristol Aeroplane Company and de Havilland before moving to the United States in 1968 to lead market research for Douglas Aircraft. A life-long aviation enthusiast, Davies dedicates his work to different aspects of the airline industry, including traffic forecasting.
Davies is author of A History of the World's Airlines (Oxford University Press, first published 1964 ), Airlines of the United States Since 1914 (Putnam & Company, first edition published 1972), Airlines of Latin America Since 1919(Putnam, 1983), Airlines of Asia Since 1920 (Putnam, 1997), Rebels and Reformers of the Airways (Smithsonian, 1987), Fallacies and Fantasies of Air Transport History (Paladwr Press, 1994), and Supersonic (Airliner) Non-Sense (Paladwr Press, 1998). He is also co-author, with I.E.Quastler, of Commuter Airlines of the United States (Smithsonian, 1995; and is co-author with Thomas Wildenberg of Howard Hughes: An Airman, His Aircraft, and His Great Flights (Paladwr Press, 2006).
Davies also is responsible, alongside artist Mike Machat, for the book series [Airline name]... An Airline and its Aircraft, where he dedicates to writing about a certain airline's history and the history of each airplane type flown by that airline. Among the airlines portrayed in this series are Pan Am(Orion Books, 1987), Delta Air Lines(Paladwr Press, 1990), Lufthansa(Paladwr Press, 1991), Aeroflot(Paladwr Press, 1992), Saudi Arabian Airlines(Paladwr Press, 1995), and Transbrasil(Paladwr Press, 1997), TWA (Paladwr Press, 2000) Eastern Airlines (Paladwr Press, 2003), and British Airways - the Imperial Years, 1919-1939 (Paladwr Press, 2005).
His writing led him to co-found Paladwr Press, a specialized publishing company, which has published 38 books of classic histories and biographies.
Mr. Davies is a member of three British Royal Societies and the Explorers Club. He currently works works as the Curator of Air Transport at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.
