One of the great things about working at Arizona Highways is our engaged readership. As soon as each issue hits newsstands and mailboxes, our readers are letting us know what they like and don't like about it.
Last week, we learned they really don't like when we call a propeller plane a jet.
Our June issue, which is on newsstands now, features June 30, 1956, Annette McGivney's story on the collision, 60 years ago, of two passenger planes over the Grand Canyon. The story itself contains no mention of how the two planes, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation and a Douglas DC-7, were propelled. But the story's subhead — written by the Arizona Highways staff — refers to them as "passenger jets."
As many readers noted in phone calls, emails and submissions on our website, that's incorrect. Both planes were propeller planes; passenger jets didn't become the standard until some years later. While "passenger jet" is sometimes colloquially used to refer to passenger planes of any type, it doesn't apply in this instance.
While this mistake has no real bearing on the story itself, or on Mark Smith's stunning illustrations, it's still a mistake, something we do our best to avoid. We regret the error — and while we'll certainly make other errors in the future, this one won't be among them.
— Noah Austin, Associate Editor