The Flying Carpet: Adventures in a Biplane from Timbuktu to Everest and Beyond (Tauris Parke Paperbacks) - Softcover

Halliburton, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848859147 ISBN 13: 9781848859142

Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2012

Synopsis

'I've just given myself an airplane and I want you to fly us to all the outlandish places in the world, Turkey, Persia, Paris and - Pasadena. We're going to fly across deserts, over mountains, rescue imprisoned princesses and fight dragons. We must have the world. We can have the world!'
Thirsting for a new adventure and announcing that 'an adventure not in the air is obsolete', Richard Halliburton hired pioneer aviator Moye Stephens in 1931 and fearlessly set out to circle the world in an open cockpit biplane optimistically named The Flying Carpet. For Halliburton it was the ultimate in romantic, risky exploration and was a means of seeing the world in a way that few had ever seen it before. True to form, his journey was breathtakingly audacious. They performed aerobatics in Fez, landed in mysterious Timbuktu, spent time with the French Foreign Legion in Algeria and explored Cairo, Damascus and Petra. In Iran, they met legendary aviatrix Ella Beinhorn and gave Princess Mahin Banu a ride. In Iraq, it was the turn of King Faisal's young son, Ghazi, who was escorted by two RAF fighter planes.

In India, they flew over the Taj Mahal - upside down - and, soaring over the Himalayas, Halliburton took the first aerial photograph of Everest. In Borneo they were entertained by Sylvia Brooke, the 'White Queen of Borneo', and by the chief of the Iban Dyak headhunters, who gave them dozens of shrunken heads. A journey as dazzling as Halliburton himself and, with the world at war less than a decade later, marking the end of an era, the story of The Flying Carpet is as captivating today as it was to the world 80 years ago.

About this title

Book Description:

The famed American explorer was a sensation in his day, with his classic travel books written during the Roaring '20s and the 1930s.

About the Author:

Richard Halliburton (1900-1939) was America's greatest adventurer and one of the most successful adventure travel writers of the 20th century. His final adventure, sailing a junk across the Pacific, was also his last. Halliburton disappeared in March 1939 and was never seen again. A great and original traveler, his wild adventures live on in the books that have captivated millions of readers and inspired generations of writers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1848859147
• ISBN 13: 9781848859142
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264