Airships and Balloons

 
Airships in International Affairs, 1890-1940
by John Duggan, Henry Cord Meyer
(Hardcover)

The Airship
by Christopher Sprigg, Adam Starchild (Afterword)
Since the early days of practical aviation, the rival claims of heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air craft have been a subject more of controversy than constructive comment. Indeed, those who have studied the history of aeronautics will be aware that man's desire for the conquest of the air has run in two channels. For one the goal is a real air "ship", the "clipper of the clouds" that Jules Verne so admirably anticipated - for the other it is a pair of wings, for which men will "call as familiarly as for their boots" - a kind of aerial motor car. The lighter-than-air craft and the heavier-than-air craft translate these two desires into practical terms.  Amazon.com
Paperback - 258 pages
Lightning Source; ISBN: 0898753651 
 

By Airship to the North Pole : An Archaeology of Human Exploration P. J. Capelotti The first two attempts to reach this remote and frigid outpost by air are examined, starting with a failed 1897 attempt by Swedish engineer Salomon August Andre who history has dubbed as either a lunatic or an idiot: his balloon needed to stay up for a month, but would only hold enough hydrogen gas for a few days. It disappeafred forever, as did he and two crew. Dropbears.com Hardcover - 224 pages Rutgers Univ Press; ISBN: 0813526337

Airship Technology (Cambridge Aerospace Series, 10)
G. A. Khoury(Editor), J. David Gillett (Editor)
Hardcover - 400 pages (April )
Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 0521430747
Out of Print
 

Battlebags : British Airships of the First World War an Illustrated History by Ces Mowthorpe This is a fully illustrated history of the Royal Naval Air Service airships, affectionately named "battlebags" by their crews and "pigs" by the local civilian inhabitants, which became mighty weapons against the deadly German U-boat menace in WW I. Amazon.com Paperback - 256 pages (April ) Sutton Publishing; ISBN: 0750915188

Blimps
by Darlene R. Stille
Paperback from Children's Book Press

Disaster at the Pole : The Tragedy of the Airship Italia and the 1928 Nobile Expedition to the North Pole
by Wilbur Cross
Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen. The great twentieth-century polar explorers. But others, too, were engaged in scrambles to the poles. One of the most bizarre and unfortunate involved that enormous and impressive spectacle of aviation's early days: the airship. In 1926, against the backdrop of Mussolini's rising power, General Umberto Nobile, one of Italy's premier aeronautical engineers, gained acclaim by crossing the Pole in a dirigible, accompanied by the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. It was an unprecedented achievement for a lighter-than-air craft, and it would have gone down in history as the first flight over the Pole had Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett not accomplished that feat in an airplane only three days before. Encouraged by his success, Nobile decided in 1928 to take a newly designed dirigible to the North Pole, land men who could conduct scientific explorations, and then fly them safely back to base. But on the Italia's return flight, disaster struck. The ship crashed down on the ice pack hundreds of miles from help. The survivors, including the injured Nobile, were stranded on an unstable ice floe, desperately trying to make radio contact with the outside world. Their disappearance inspired one of the most far-reaching rescue missions ever undertaken. Seven nations and hundreds of men in air, sea, and land reconnaissance engaged in a needle-in-a-haystack search over the arctic wastes. Many of the would-be rescuers were injured or killed - the most famous being Roald Amundsen, who lost his life in a plane crash. Drawing on interviews he conducted with Umberto Nobile and other survivors in the 1950s, Wilbur Cross resurrects a stunning tale that has been long overlooked by history. He brings to life the struggles of the survivors throughout nearly two months on the ice, including the fate of three men who set off on a doomed trek to reach help. Disaster at the Pole also reveals the truths of the controversy surrounding Nobile, who was rescued first and was accused of cowardice and desertion by Italy's fascist government. Filled with political intrigue, heroics, and cruel twists of fate, the story of the Italia is one of the most fascinating among polar tragedies. 
Hardcover - 316 pages
The Lyons Press; ISBN: 1585740497
 

The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed by John McPhee Since the explosion of the Hindenburg in Lakehurst, New Jersey, energy-efficient, lighter-than-air ships have given way to gas-guzzling jet aircraft. But in the 1960s, an unusual band of inventors, engineers and investors, again in New Jersey, created the Aereon, a strange, wingless hybrid airplane/dirigible. The Aereon--the Deltoid Pumpkin Seed-- promised to be a safe workhorse of the skies, capable of carrying the payload of entire freight trains with minimal cost.  In this exquisitely crafted tale of back-to-the-drawing-board perseverance, McPhee tells the story not only of the Aereon, but of any product development team. He astutely delineates the team members' personalities and interactions, delves back in time to the origins of lighter-than-air craft and the history of propellers, and in the end, makes us wonder why this promising technology hasn't been perfected. Like Aramis: Or the Love of Technology, this is a splendid book about a potentially superior aircraft which has yet to be adopted. Paperback (May 1981) Noonday Pr; ISBN: 0374516359

The Great Texas Airship Mystery
Wallace Chariton, et al 
Between 1896-1897, Texas was churning with reports of a cigar-shaped airship ...
Hardcover / Published 1991

The Great Dirigibles : Their Triumphs and Disasters
by John Toland
Paperback revised edition (June 1972)
Dover Pubns; ISBN: 0486213978

Hot Air Balloons : Flights of Fancy and Fantasy
by Ailsa Spindler, Clive McFadden
Hardcover - 80 pages (December )
Todtri Productions Ltd; ISBN: 1577171594

Inside the Hindenburg
by Mireille Majoor, Ken Marschall (Illustrator)
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover - 32 pages (November )
Little Brown & Co (Juv Trd); ISBN: 0316123862

Lighter Than Air : Illustrated History of the Development of Hot Air Balloons and Airships
by David Owen
Hardcover - 160 pages
Book Sales; ISBN: 0785810455 

Man Flies : The Story of Alberto Santos-Dumont, Master of the Balloon, Conqueror of the Air
by Nancy Winters
(Hardcover)
 

My Airships by Alberto Santos-Dumont, Adam Starchild Paperback from University Press of the Pacific

Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airships; Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg
Harold G. Dick, Douglas H. Robinson (Contributor)
Listed under Zeppelins

From Airship to Spaceship : Long Island in Aviation and Spaceflight
Joshua Stoff 
Hardcover / Published 1991

Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine : The Great Zeppelin and the Dawn of Air Travel
by Douglas Botting
Listed under Zeppelins

The Hindenburg
by Patrick O'Brien
(School & Library Binding)

The Hindenburg (Great Disasters and Their Reforms)
by Gina De Angelis

The Hindenburg Disaster: Doomed Airship (American Disasters)
by Victoria Sherrow

The Hindenburg: Fiery Crash of a German Airship (Disaster!)
by Kathleen W. Deady

R101 : The Airship Disaster, 1930
by Tim Coates (Editor)
(Paperback)
 

USS Los Angeles: The Navy's Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology by William F. Althoff Book Description: Aviation historian William Althoff tells the story of the U.S. Navy’s airship, USS Los Angeles, the most successful aircraft of its type ever flown. In dramatic detail, Althoff recounts how the U.S. Navy arranged for the famed German Zeppelin Company to build the ship, thwarted schemes by the U.S. Army’s Air Service to take control of it, and helped plan its record-breaking historic four-day flight from Germany to the United States. After years of experiments meant to determine its military and commercial application, the airship ultimately failed to command a consensus in the Navy. "Relegated to a lower tier," Althoff writes, "the rigid type receded to marginal relevance until, on the eve of World War Two, it vanished altogether." In this book, the early achievements and unceremonious demise of the Los Angeles after a long career symbolize the airship’s unfulfilled promise. Nonetheless, the operational record of this one machine altered American naval aeronautics and greatly influenced transoceanic commercial air transport during a critical period of its development.  Hardcover from Brasseys, Inc.

The Wellman Polar Airship Expeditions
P.J. Capelotti 
In 1993, an expedition to Danes Island in Svalbard discovered the wrecks of Walter Wellman's polar airships, used on his attempted flights to the Pole in 1906, 1907, and 1909.
Paperback - 118 pages 1 edition (July 7, )
Norwegian Polar Institute (Norway)/Pictorial Histories (USA); ISBN: 8276661270

Zeppelin: Rigid Airships 1893-1940
by Peter Brooks
Listed under Zeppelins

When Giants Roamed the Sky: Karl Arnstein and the Rise of Airships from Zeppelin to Goodyear
by Dale Topping, Eric Brothers, A. Dale Topping
Hardcover from University of Akron Press

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American Airship Bases & Facilities
James R. Shock
Paperback 
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Airship Technology
by Gabriel A. Khoury (Editor), J. David Gillett (Editor)
(Hardcover)
Out of Print

Dirigible and the Future
Henry Ambes
Paperback / Published 1981
Out of Print - Try Used Books

U.S.S. Los Angeles : Navy's Venerable Airship & Aviation Technology
by William F. Althoff
(Hardcover)
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Did W.D. Custead Fly First? : The Story of W.D. Custead of Elm Mott- Waco, Texas - Airship Builder Before the Wrights Flew
Nick Pocock
Paperback / Published 1974 
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Sky Ships : A History of the Airship in the United States Navy
William A. Althoff
Paperback
Out of Print - Try Used Books

The Airmen Who Would Not Die
John Fuller
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 

R100 : Her Voyage to Canada
Barry Countryman
Hardcover / Published 1982 
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 

Airships on DVD

National Geographic's Hindenburg's Fiery Secret VHS • NTSC format (US and Canada only) • Color, Closed-captioned, NTSC • ASIN: B00003OSU0

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