John J. Geoghegan - Böcker

Almost everything you know about airships is wrong.Between 1917 and 1935, the US Navy poured tens of millions of dollars into their airship programme, building a series of dirigibles each one more enormous than the last. These flying behemoths were to be the future of long-distance transport, competing with trains and ocean liners to carry people, post and cargo from country to country, and even across the sea. But by 1936 all these ambitious plans had been scrapped.What happened?When Giants Ruled the Sky is the story of how the American rigid airship came within a hair’s breadth of dominating long-distance transportation. It is also the story of four men whose courage and determination kept the programme going despite the obstacles thrown in their way – until the Navy deliberately ignored a fatal design flaw, bringing the programme crashing back to earth. The subsequent cover-up prevented the truth from being told for more than eighty years.Now, for the first time, what really happened can be revealed.

What exactly is White Elephant Technology?White Elephant Technology is any unusual invention past or present that fails in the marketplace despite its innovative nature. From jeeps that fly to tanks that shouldn’t; from a wave-powered boat that took over three months to reach its destination to a jet-powered train that shook itself apart, White Elephant Technology showcases each inventor’s talent for creating something nobody asked for. Importantly, none of these inventions are speculative. Each one was built, field tested and worked more or less as planned (except when it killed its creator).Although success is highly prized, failure has a lot to teach us, especially when you realise it’s the rule and not the exception. Still, no one has undertaken a survey of failed inventions despite history being littered with them … until now. White Elephant Technology corrects this oversight in an entertaining, respectful and occasionally humorous manner, proving that failure is not only as fascinating as success but is also the purest expression of the human condition.

Everyone knows about Sir Ernest Shackleton or Amelia Earhart, but there are many adventurers whose accomplishments rival those of the most celebrated explorers, yet most people have never heard of them. This new account tells the true but little-known stories of five men and four women who once made world headlines but have virtually disappeared from the historical record. They are a complex mix of heroes and villains when looked at through a modern-day lens, but all pushed the boundaries of their time accomplishing something truly extraordinary, the lessons of which remain relevant today. Driven by fortune, glory, wanderlust, and an insane desire to achieve the impossible, each of these adventurers had to grapple with unexpected twists, brushes with death, disease, disaster, and treachery. Their accomplishments will both surprise the reader and leave them shaking their head in wonder while asking: “What in the world were they thinking?”