Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin and the Dawn of Air Travel - Hardcover

Botting, Douglas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805064583 ISBN 13: 9780805064582

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2001

Synopsis

A richly detailed history of the opulent age of the zeppelin and the visionary builder behind the great airship, Dr. Hugo Eckener

It wasn't the airplane that first romanced the public's imagination at the dawn of the twentieth century , but the great airships known as dirigibles, or zeppelins. Championing this great leap into the technological future was a visionary German entrepreneur, Doctor Hugo Eckener.

For Eckener, the development of the airship, especially coming in the aftermath of the First World War, represented an opportunity to shrink the world through safe and speedy international travel. Botting's engrossing story vividly recaptures the spirit of the times, when new technologies in communication, transportation, manufacturing and other areas were revolutionizing society. The great airships were a source of wonder wherever they flew, and Eckener was likened to Christopher Columbus, hailed around the world as the great explorer of his day, not unlike the astronauts would be a few generations later.

From its utitlitarian beginnings in the Great War, the airship reached its apotheosis with the round-the-world flight of the Graf Zeppelin in 1929. Seventeen years after the voyage of the Titanic, this great airship- twice as big and three times as fast as that ill-fated liner-captured the world's attention and seemed to blaze a path to the future. That future, of course, was not to be, as Eckener's dream evaporated soon after, with the destruction of the Hindenburg and the impending success of the airplane.

About this title

About the Author

Douglas Botting is a writer, journalist, and biographer whose interests include travel, exploration, wild places and conservation matters. His previous works include Gerald Durrell: The Authorized Biography, The Saga of Ring of Bright Water: The Enigma of Gavin Maxwell, as well as several travel guides. He lives near London.

Reviews

"Oh, the humanity and all the passengers... a mass of flaming wreckage." These words from radio reporter Herbert Morrison witnessing the destruction of the Hindenberg in 1937 are familiar to many. However, in the two decades before this disaster, the zeppelin had a string of successful voyages around the world and was a popular mode of transportation, particularly among the affluent. English journalist Botting (Gerald Durrell: The Authorized Biography) vividly tells the story of the development of the zeppelin and the work of its inventor, Dr. Hugo Eckener. Eckener, an entrepreneur, believed that this type of aircraft would eventually be an accepted mode of transportation around the world. He faced skepticism from both government and private industry as he traveled from his native Germany overseas on the zeppelin to raise money and support. The difficulty of getting enough fuel for long voyages was a daunting obstacle, but Eckener's zeppelin dreams ended with the Hindenberg explosion. Botting's thorough research and plausibly recreated conversations of those involved allow readers to easily step back into Eckener's world and understand the difficulties he encountered.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* The British comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus once presented a sketch in which Graham Chapman, as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, pitched various dignitaries out the door of his airborne vessel, crying, with ever more frustration, "It's not a balloon, it's an airship!" Allowing for comedic exaggeration, this is a pretty fair representation of the climate in which the German former military man invented his worldchanging means of transportation: he knew he was on to something special, something monumental, but he couldn't seem to convince anyone else of it. Botting's marvelous book chronicles the creation of the zeppelin from the count's various attempts at powered flight through the efforts of his successor, Hugo Eckener, to make the zeppelin the world's primary means of air travel. It's a truly exciting book, filled with colorful characters and plenty of derringdo and laced with just the right amount of sadness and tragedy; the history of the zeppelin is, after all, also the history of air warfare, and the count's thrilling invention was used for some pretty terrible things. (And we must not forget the Hindenburg, whose final moments in May 1937 were captured on film and described live by a radio reporter.) A breathtaking book. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805064583
• ISBN 13: 9780805064582
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352