His Majestys Airship, S. C.  Gwynne
His Majestys Airship, S. C.  Gwynne
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His Majesty's Airship
The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine

Author: S. C. Gwynne

Narrator: Nicholas Boulton

Unabridged: 9 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/02/2023


Synopsis

From historian and bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon comes a “captivating, thoroughly researched” (The New York Times Book Review) tale of the rise and fall of the world’s largest airship—and the doomed love story between an ambitious British officer and a married Romanian princess at its heart.

The tragic fate of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later—has been largely forgotten. In His Majesty’s Airship, S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of great ambition gone terribly wrong.

Airships, those airborne leviathans that occupied center stage in the world in the first half of the 20th century, were a symbol of the future. R101 was not just the largest aircraft ever to have flown and the product of the world’s most advanced engineering—she was also the lynchpin of an imperial British scheme to link by air the far-flung areas of its empire, from Australia to India, South Africa, Canada, Egypt, and Singapore. No one had ever conceived of anything like this, and R101 captivated the world. There was just one problem: beyond the hype and technological wonders, these big, steel-framed, hydrogen-filled airships were a dangerously bad idea.

Gwynne’s chronicle features a cast of remarkable—and tragically flawed—characters, including Lord Christopher Thomson, the man who dreamed up the Imperial Airship Scheme and then relentlessly pushed R101 to her destruction; Princess Marthe Bibesco, the celebrated writer and glamorous socialite with whom he had a long affair; and George Herbert Scott, a national hero who was the first person to cross the Atlantic twice in any aircraft, in 1919—eight years before Lindbergh’s famous flight—but who devolved into drink and ruin. These historical figures—and the ship they built, flew, and crashed—come together in “a Promethean tale of unlimited ambitions and technical limitations, airy dreams and explosive endings” (The Wall Street Journal).

About S. C. Gwynne

S.C. Gwynne is the author of His Majesty’s Airship, Hymns of the Republic, and the New York Times bestsellers Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He spent most of his career as a journalist, including stints with Time as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor, and with Texas Monthly as executive editor. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Blaine on November 18, 2023

Very interesting book about the plight of His Majesty's Airship (R-101). Airships (blimps) had their heydays in the early 19th century and here author S.C Gywnne gives us a really good overview of the history of the airship industry, which really gets started with Count Von Zeppelin in Germany whose......more

Goodreads review by Dax on September 30, 2023

SC Gwynne's brings his talents to bear on a forgotten element of air travel history. You might occasionally hear someone mention the Hindenburg, that famous Nazi airship that exploded in New Jersey, but other than that, the history of airships is largely lost to the general public. Airplanes are the......more

Goodreads review by Shrike58 on June 17, 2023

Although I've been aware of the R101 disaster for many years now, this book couldn't have been written even ten years ago. On one hand, there was a need for modern forensic work. On the other, there was a lack of clear-headed acceptance of the bad judgement in play at the time of the disaster, which......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on May 18, 2023

I was surprised to learn that a British airship nicknamed R101 had preceded the Hindenburg in a fatal fiery flight. As the doomed voyage plodded onward toward India, its state destination, I hoped for a good outcome since I had never heard of this craft. The attitude toward the glaring flaws was lai......more

Goodreads review by Crystal on May 12, 2023

The biography of a bad idea.......more


Quotes

"Nicholas Boulton’s smooth narration is perfect for this well-researched historical account of the ill-fated experimental British rigid airship, the R101...Boulton’s keen sense for wry humor, especially apparent when relaying footnotes, underscores the absurdity of the political and military imperatives that hastened the R101’s flight to India in October 1930 without rigorous testing and adjustments. Aviation history buffs will find this a compelling production."