Klik på en miniature for at gå til Google Books
Indlæser... Dirigible Dreams: The Age of the Airship (udgave 2014)af C. Michael Hiam
Work InformationDirigible Dreams: The Age of the Airship af C. Michael Hiam
Top Five Books of 2014 (481) Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. I hadn't realised how very few airships there had been, and how very many of them had crashed or otherwise been destroyed. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I was pleased to receive this book for free through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program. Space flight has long been a major interest of mine -- and by extension, early aviation history. Nonetheless, I found this work to be something of a disappointment. Its focus, of course, is on the history of dirigibles, during the relatively short period that they were used (1897-1938), as means of transportation and of warfare. I found it bland in tone, and shy on technological details. My perspective is not shared by most reviewers here and at Amazon, and I cheerfully admit that perhaps I was not the optimal audience for the book. Given the great scarcity of books on the history of dirigibles, I would recommend the book to those with deep interests in the history of aviation, much more so than to the casual reader. The numerous photographs interspersed through the book are a nice plus. And I love the alliterative title! This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. The age of the airship was brief -- 25 years, 30 at the most -- and its heyday was even briefer: a few years around 1930 when the British R100 crossed the Atlantic to Canada; the Graf Zeppelin began her 9-year, million-mile career; and the Akron and Macon, single-engined fighter planes stowed in their onboard hangers, scouted for the US fleet. Soon enough, though, it began to unravel. Akron and Macon both crashed into the sea, Britain abandoned airships (and R100 was broken up for scrap) after the tragically overweight R101 plowed into a French hillside. The Graf Zeppelin lasted, and her stablemate Hindenburg put in a successful season of Atlantic crossings before the first flight of her second year of service ended in a fireball at Lakehurst. The Hindenburg disaster took Germany's airship program, and the Graf Zeppelin, down with it, but the day of the airship was already ending: brought to a close by faster, more economical airplanes.It's been several decades since Douglas Botting's The Great Airships last surveyed this story, and more than half-a-century since John Toland's The Great Dirigibles emerged as the standard introduction. Hiam tells the story for the 21st century, from the early experiments of Zeppelin and Santos-Dumont through the end of the dream in the late 1930s. The emphasis is as much on the quirky visionaries behind the airship as on the technology itself, but that seems as fitting as the title: The airship, in retrospect, was always a machine for dreamers. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Many a splendid thing is ruined by politics. Details the inception and brief heyday of the Zeppelin encompassing its military, civilian, and polar exploratory uses and the numerous ensuing disasters. What an awkward, yet interesting branch of aviation history. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. As a child, I was always excited whenever the Goodyear Blimp would fly overhead, the thought of there being people aboard a flying balloon set my imagination to new heights. Dirigible Dreams gives us the history of the great airships, from the groundbreaking work of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, to the ill-fated Hindenburg disaster, which brought about the demise of airships as viable modes of transport.This was a highly entertaining as well as educational an education read. Recommended for lovers of history, aviation, and technology. Read the full review in The Thugbrarian Review @ http://wp.me/p4pAFB-rC ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
Here is the story of airships--manmade flying machines without wings--from their earliest beginnings to the modern era of blimps. In postcards and advertisements, the sleek, silver, cigar-shaped airships, or dirigibles, were the embodiment of futuristic visions of air travel. They immediately captivated the imaginations of people worldwide, but in less than fifty years dirigible became a byword for doomed futurism, an Icarian figure of industrial hubris. Dirigible Dreams looks back on this bygone era, when the future of exploration, commercial travel, and warfare largely involved the prospect of wingless flight. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumC. Michael Hiam's book Dirigible Dreams: The Age of the Airship was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsIngenPopulære omslag
Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)629.13324Technology Engineering and allied operations Other Branches Aviation Aviation engineeringLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
Er det dig?Bliv LibraryThing-forfatter. |