Will I love His Majesty's Airship?

Few Americans are aware of the grandiose ambitions of Great Britain’s Imperial Airship Scheme or its tragic consequences.

Gwynne does a terrific job recapturing all the glamour and folly involved in this important but little-known undertaking. Designed to connect England’s major colonies, including Canada, Africa, Australia, and India, by regularly scheduled airship travel, the Imperial Airship schemed resulted in two gigantic, big-rigid airships: the R100 and R101. One set out and successfully completed a transatlantic trip to Canada and back, promising great things to come, while her sister ship embarked on a voyage from England to India a few months… show more.

I am a total geek for the history of things. Whether it’s the history of some food like the eel or the nutmeg or the history of rubber, I’m always ready to settle into a book that gives me an almost obsessive detail of something I hadn’t thought much about.

I now know more than I ever wanted to know about zeppelins, airships, dirigibles, world war weaponry, and the power of relentless, nationalistic, narcissistic marketing.

I read this a few weeks after the implosion of the Titan near the Titanic wreck. All I could think was, “Dang, if only sane… show more.