Airship: Design, Development and Disaster Hardcover – Illustrated, December 15, 2012

The subtitle of this book and its length (over 300 pages) might lead one to believe that it would be a detailed design history and analysis of the airship programs of all the major nations involved in their development, replete with design plans, data tables, and the like. Such a book is sorely needed. Even the dust jacket is misleading, showing as it does the German LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin, which is not even mentioned once in the text. The real focus is on the unsuccessful British rigid airship program in the 1920's culminating in competition between different design teams responsible for the R100 and the R101, and the eventual R101 disaster which ended rigid airship expermentation in the UK. The author does this quite well, telling the story through key individuals and making excellent use of letters, personal reflections, and interviews of key players. Of particular note is a year-long series of log entries by the R101's First Officer that give the reader a haunting portrait of a man becoming gradually ever more convinced that the flawed airship under construction would eventually kill him...which it did. Unfortunately, the author is far less interested in airships themselves, especially those of other nations, which get particularly short shrift. There is little in this book about the design and technical characteristics of rigid airships that is not presented more thoroughly and more accurately in many other general secondary sources. I would still recommend this book to anyone with a particular interest in the British airship program, especially regarding the naivete', hubris, political intrigues, and professional rivalries of the designers, corporate heads, and government officials involved. For anyone looking for a detailed, accurate, scholarly, and dispassionate technical analysis of airship design and development in the early 20th century, that book hasn't yet been written.

My verdict on this book is similar to that of the others here. For starters, a picture of the Hindenburg on the cover is very misleading, because almost the entire text covers British rigids, from their origins in the aftermath of WWI based on designs from captured Zeppelins, and then moving on to the bulk of the research, which is on the politics of the Imperial Airship Scheme. Swinfield does an excellent job in bringing to life the characters which other authors on the subject tend to have glossed over. In this respect, the book makes a good companion to Chamberlain: the former concentrates more on the technology and engineering aspects (especially in relation to the R101 inquest), but this book deals more with the personalities and politics, especially Wallis, Burney and Thompson.There really is no substantive coverage, however, on the post-WWI Zeppelins and the US rigids.The book's main strength is that Swinfield makes a rational and level-headed attempt to assess the R101 controversy (criminal incompetence pure and simply, or a technological masterpiece that was unfairly damned after it fell victim to fate and politics?), weighing up the competing claims of Nevil Shute and Roxbee Cox, and trying to step back from the dominance of Shute's book (and to a lesser extent Leasor's "The Millionth Chance"); concluding that the truth is complex and lies between the two. Its weakness is that the book is mistitled and poorly marketed. The title should have been something like "British Rigid Airships from World War I to the R101: Politics, Engineering and Disaster", because that is what the book essentially covers. Despite the dustjacketed photo, the Hindenburg is covered in a page and a half: you'll find more substantive detail and debate about it on Wikipedia.

Good, but not as good as I hoped.

Having read many books on LTA over the 61 years I have been on this planet and being a self confessed helium head (airship buff) this book leaves a lot to be desired other than the authors somewhat new take on the Grand British Airship plan. If you are new to LTA than this book is OK as it just breifly brushes all other countries use of LTA up until the Hindenburg fire. But to those in the know besides the strong British overview somewaht disapointing along with nothing new or WOW I never saw this photo before as photos even more disapointing and with obivious errors but does give some much needed insight on the revival of the industry as a whole.

Strong on politics and personal recollections.Not quite so strong on engineering and flight test.Avoids apportioning blame for either R 101 or the Hindenburg.

A summary of the review on StrategyPage.Com:'A history of the airship from its beginnings to the present, with a strong emphasis on British developments, reflecting journalist Swinfield’s background. This is valuable given that the British side of the history of the airship is often overlooked in favor of German and American developments. Swinfield does give the reader adequate treatment of the history of the airship in those nations, and evens material several other rather neglected nations, such as Norway, Italy, and Russia. He provides the reader with an enormous amount of interesting detail on the science and technology behind the airships, both rigid and semi-rigid, with occasional references to the non-rigid variety. Swinfield populates the book with profiles of many people who played a role in the history of the airship, most of whom are today largely forgotten. His account of airship operations covers both war service and peacetime passenger service, in both instances with sometimes surprising detail. Although the omission of the last of the great airships, Graf Zeppelin II, sister ship of the Hindenburg, is curious, Airship is an excellent contribution to the literature of these unique craft.'For the full review, see StrategyPage.Com

Just a picky, From LZ1 aluminium or the harder alloy 'dural' aluminium was always used for rigid frames, with the exception of the Suutte Lanze ships and two later British rigids R31 & R32Dural was considerably MORE expensive than steel. I would like to hear of an example built with steel.Pore and pour, he needs a better editor.An entertaining read so far.John

arrived very fast .... amazing book ,purchased for my brother .... wish i had realised i could order it to be delivered from amazon in germany to save posting it from england to him, so in future that is what i will do .... fascinating read,, quoting local places carving a foundation and relevance in history of Englands contribution to the evolution of the air ship,successes and disasters

Very interesting book

A very good subject for a book. Unfortunatley almost totally bereft of the technical details that the title suggests! How about some more diagrams plans & basic specifications? Suffers from repitition iin subject & text and lacks a narrative theme. Where are the proof readers when yolu need them! Only my opinion of course. If you are into the intrigue of those involved in these epic projects you may well enjoy this book.

A very interesting and detailed look at airship design and life as such.The book is well written, you will not be disappointed.