Flying has been a dream of humankind since time immemorial. As E. Y. Harburg wrote, “Somewhere over the rainbow,/ Blue birds fly/ Birds fly over the rainbow/ Why then, oh why, can’t I?” Only at the dawn of the twentieth century was the dream of flying finally realized. And, as hardly anyone now remembers, it was realized twice.
For a third of a century, the two means of flying—heavier-than-air (airplanes) and lighter-than-air (airships)—vied to become the dominant form of air transportation. This now forgotten contest has been brought back to vivid life in Empires of the Sky by Alexander Rose, the author of several well-regarded works of history, including Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring (2006). Despite a ridiculously over-the-top subtitle, this new work is well worth the reader’s time.
The dirigible, also called a zeppelin after its inventor, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, a German aristocrat, had many advantages over the airplane in the early days of flying. For one thing, it evolved from a proof-of-concept to a mature technology much faster. By 1910, zeppelins were capable of handling substantial numbers of passengers. Only in the mid-1930s could airplanes do the same.
And while zeppelins were slower than airplanes, they had a much greater range because they didn’t need to expend energy just to stay aloft. Large ones could easily cross the Atlantic Ocean, for instance. And they were much faster than the other means of transatlantic passenger service, ocean liners. A zeppelin could cross the Atlantic in only two and a half days, twice as fast as rmsQueen Mary, the fastest ship of her day.
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