This richly illustrated book chronicles lighter-than-air flight from
Archimedes' discovery of the principle of buoyancy to the latest in
sport balloons and plans for future airships. Far more than a timeline
of events, Lighter Than Air focuses on the people--flamboyant and
daring, heroes and scoundrels--who made history in the sky. Here are the
eighteenth-century pioneers who first took to the skies, the peripatetic
aeronauts who criss-crossed two continents a century later, the airmen
who manned the great rigid airships, and the intrepid balloonists who
flew their craft across oceans and continents in the years following
World War II.
The first half of the volume recounts the invention of the balloon, the
golden age of the professional aerial showmen in Europe and America, the
use of balloons for aerial reconnaissance, and the key role of balloons
in scientific research. The second half presents the rich tale of the
airship from eighteenth-century dreams to twentieth-century reality.
These chapters describe the early development of the pressure airship,
the emergence of the rigid airship and its golden age in the first half
of the twentieth century, and the military and civil applications of
these aerial behemoths. The author concludes by discussing modern
blimps, sport balloons, and dreams of a future for airships.
The highly accessible text is complemented with a wealth of prints and
photos from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the
Museé de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget, the Zepplin-Museum at
Zepplinheim, and the Imperial War Museum in London. Written by
award-winning aeronautical historian Tom D. Crouch, Lighter Than Air
brings to life the color and excitement of buoyant flight.
