Having gotten a sponsorship from Indiana Jones 5, the Rewatchables podcast recently--completely coincidentally, we were assured--discussed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The best part was Chris Ryan's advocacy for dirigibles as a form of transportation. The film does indeed portray it as the ultimate way to travel. And for most of our lives we've watched the Goodyear and MetLife blimps blithely circle sporting events. On the other hand, when we were kids Time-Life Audio marketed a set of great radio broadcasts by running non-stop ads featuring the original Herb Morrison call of the Hindenburg disaster with the famous line: "Oh, the humanity". Since it was a tv ad campaign they included footage of the crash, which looked terrifying. Then too, Thomas Harris, of Hannibal Lecter fame, had his first best-seller with Black Sunday, about a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl using a blimp as the delivery system and there was a decent film version made. [Side note: we used to go to Cosmos games at Giants Stadium where the security guys were notorious thugs--eventually beating a Grateful Dead concert-goer to death. When the Stadium banned bringing in bottles I showed up with a bag at the front gate. The guard first asked why I'd brought a baseball mitt: "In case a ball comes into the stands." Then, why a Bible?: "In case I see the blimp coming in low."] So one is not unprepared to hear that the history of dirigible development and travel was at best checkered. But no one could anticipate what Mr. Gwynne relates here: a relentless catalog of one fiasco after another, each unslowed by the prior. The subtitle of the book gives away the fact that the airship in question is headed for a less than successful adventure, so we'll not worry about spoiler alerts, eh? I'm a big fan of the author, whose Perfect Pass is nearly the only great book about football strategy and whose Hymns of the Republic lays waste to any notions that our Civil War was less brutal and fratricidal than those of other nations. Here he manages to maintain our interest even though we know inevitably what's coming The secret to his success is three-fold. First, he provides a virtual biography of the central figure in this misadventure, Lord Christopher Birdwood Thomson: Despite his Cheltenham manners and ministerial calm, Christopher Birdwood Thomson is a man obsessed. He has been the driving force behind a scheme to connect the far-flung outposts of the British Empire through the new medium of the air. He has taken firm hold of the national building program whose purpose is to show the world that it can be done. Flying R101 to India will be the proof. R101 is his baby. Or perhaps more accurately, the spawn of his gauzy, rainbow-inflected vision of a future in which fleets of lighter-than-air ships float serenely through blue imperial skies, linking everything British in a new space- time continuum.Moreover, he presents Thomson and the British lighter than air service as servants in the grand Imperial project of Great Britain, which gives their ambition and willingness to ignore danger an oddly delusional coherence. The aim was to overawe, but they ultimately overawed themselves. The delusions make up the second strand of the book. The rigid airship--featuring a metal frame surrounding gas bags--was largely (exclusively?) pioneered in pre-WWI Germany and its theoretical application as a weapon of war was recognized immediately. But, to give the Cliff Notes version, even in development the machines proved not just unreliable but often deadly. And when they were utilized in the War they initially seemed to have some efficacy, since Britain had neither the air defenses nor the planes to counter them and they could bomb pretty much unimpeded. But, as the author recounts, even at this stage the bombings were ineffectual, their targets rarely hit, and control of the zeppelins only marginal at best, while foul weather completely neutralized them. Instead of actual battlefield success, they became tools of propaganda, fooling Germans and Brits alike into believing that they had been useful. Subsequently, when Germany lost the war, the Brits took over the program, which Thomson led. And there comes the final strand, an almost you-are-there account of the ill-fated vessel, R101, "the world's largest flying machine." : According to later statements from one witness on the ground, “The wind was very violent and the rain was rather strong. The wind was coming in gusts, a tempest from the southwest, very strong, but not lasting. The wind was in heavy gusts and changing in direction.” Another witness said, “The wind was blowing in squall.” The air temperature is fifty degrees Fahrenheit.Twining them all together, Mr. Gwynne provides us with not just an unknown history but an exciting read. That we hardly know whether to treat the whole history as horrifying or comical simply adds to the fun. At any rate, I'm off the idea of blimp travel for awhile. (Reviewed:) Grade: (A) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: S. C. Gwynne -AUTHOR SITE: scgwynne.com -TWITTER: @scgwynne -AUTHOR PAGE: S. C. Gwynne (Simon Schuster) -VIDEO ARCHIVES: S. C. Gwynne (YouTube) -ARCHIVES: S.C. Gwynne (Writer at Large, Texas Monthly) -EXCERPT: When One of the World’s Largest Flying Machines Crashed in a French Field: S.C. Gwynne Remembers the Tragic History of the British Airship R101 (S. C. Gwynne, May 22, 2023, LitHub) -EXCERPT: MEET THE MAN WHO SENT THE WORLD’S LARGEST FLYING MACHINE TO ITS DOOM: Christopher Birdwood Thomson was determined to fly the R101 airship to India, whether it was ready for the trip or not. (S.C. GWYNNE, 8/2023, HistoryNet) - - - - -TRIBUTE: Mike Leach, the Madman Who Revolutionized Football: The author of The Perfect Pass and Empire of the Summer Moon reflects on Mike Leach’s coaching legacy. (S.?C. Gwynne, December 14, 2022, Texas Monthly) - - - -PODCAST: S.C. Gwynne: His Majesty’s Airship interview by David Wilk (David Wilk, 8/28/23, writerscast) -PODCAST: The Aviation Disaster that Ended an Empire – Episode 178 (Flight Safety Detectives) -VIDEO INTERVIEW: S.C. Gwynne: Bestselling author and historian S.C. Gwynne joined Book TV to talk and take calls about Native American history, the Civil War, and more. Mr. Guinn’s books include “"Empire of the Summer Moon,” "Rebel Yell," and “His Majesty’s Airship.” (C-SPAN, AUGUST 6, 2023 In Depth) -VIDEO LECTURE: S.C. Gwynne presents HIS MAJESTY'S AIRSHIP, with Greg Seltzer (Flyleaf Books, May 3, 2023) -VIDEO LECTURE: Author Series | S. C. Gwynne | His Majesty's Airship (Hudson Library & Historical Society, May 10, 2023) -PODCAST: S.C. Gwynne on His Majesty's Airship (Keen On, ) -PODCAST: Authors on Audio: S.C. Gwynne: on His Majesty's Airship (Talmage Boston, July 26, 2023, Washington Independent Review of Books) -PODCAST: Authors on Audio: A Conversation with S.C. Gwynne: on Hymns of the Republic (Talmage Boston, November 27, 2019, Washington Independent Review of Books) -INTERVIEW: WHAT DO COW INTESTINES HAVE TO DO WITH THE WORLD’S LARGEST FLYING MACHINE?: Author S.C. Gwynne explains it all. (TOM HUNTINGTON5/16/2023, HistoryNet) -INTERVIEW: Q&A with S.C. Gwynne (Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, August 5, 2023) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -REVIEW ARCHIVES: S. C. Gwynne (Kirkus) -ARCHIVES: SC Gwynne (lit Hub) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship by S.C. Gwynne (Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship (John Lancaster, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship (Kirkus) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship (Deborah Hopkinson, BookPage) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship (Business Standard) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship ( -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship ( -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship ( -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship (Carole McDonnell, Compulsive Reader) -REVIEW: of His Majesty's Airship (Hopewell's Public Library of Life) -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell by S.C. Gwynne (Allen C. Guelzo, WSJ) -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell (Robert I. Girardi, Washington Independent Review of Books) -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell ( -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell ( -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell ( -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell ( -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell ( -REVIEW: of Rebel Yell ( -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of Book-related and General Links: -VIDEO: Hindenburg: The New Evidence (NOVA, 05/19/21, PBS) -REVIEW: of -REVIEW: of |
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