---
product_id: 5657036
title: "Airship: Design, Development and Disaster Hardcover – Illustrated, December 15, 2012"
brand: "john swinfield"
price: "€ 63.08"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 11
url: https://www.desertcart.it/products/5657036-airship-design-development-and-disaster-hardcover-illustrated-december-15-2012
store_origin: IT
region: Italy
---

# Airship: Design, Development and Disaster Hardcover – Illustrated, December 15, 2012

**Brand:** john swinfield
**Price:** € 63.08
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Airship: Design, Development and Disaster Hardcover – Illustrated, December 15, 2012 by john swinfield
- **How much does it cost?** € 63.08 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.it](https://www.desertcart.it/products/5657036-airship-design-development-and-disaster-hardcover-illustrated-december-15-2012)

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- john swinfield enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Images

![Airship: Design, Development and Disaster Hardcover – Illustrated, December 15, 2012 - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Pg9YoFpoL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Good but not what was expected
  

*by J***H on Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2013*

The subtitle of this book and its length (over 300 pages) might lead one to believe that it would be a detailed design history and analysis of the airship programs of all the major nations involved in their development, replete with design plans, data tables, and the like. Such a book is sorely needed. Even the dust jacket is misleading, showing as it does the German LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin, which is not even mentioned once in the text.  The real focus is on the unsuccessful British rigid airship program in the 1920's culminating in competition between different design teams responsible for the R100 and the R101, and the eventual R101 disaster which ended rigid airship expermentation in the UK. The author does this quite well, telling the story through key individuals and making excellent use of letters, personal reflections, and interviews of key players. Of particular note is a year-long series of log entries by the R101's First Officer that give the reader a haunting portrait of a man becoming gradually ever more convinced that the flawed airship under construction would eventually kill him...which it did.  Unfortunately, the author is far less interested in airships themselves, especially those of other nations, which get particularly short shrift. There is little in this book about the design and technical characteristics of rigid airships that is not presented more thoroughly and more accurately in many other general secondary sources.  I would still recommend this book to anyone with a particular interest in the British airship program, especially regarding the naivete', hubris, political intrigues, and professional rivalries of the designers, corporate heads, and government officials involved. For anyone looking for a detailed, accurate, scholarly, and dispassionate technical analysis of airship design and development in the early 20th century, that book hasn't yet been written.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A useful addition to the literature, but not quite what it says on the tin
  

*by M***L on Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2014*

My verdict on this book is similar to that of the others here.  For starters, a picture of the Hindenburg on the cover is very misleading, because almost the entire text covers British rigids, from their origins in the aftermath of WWI based on designs from captured Zeppelins, and then moving on to the bulk of the research, which is on the politics of the Imperial Airship Scheme.  Swinfield does an excellent job in bringing to life the characters which other authors on the subject tend to have glossed over.  In this respect, the book makes a good companion to Chamberlain: the former concentrates more on the technology and engineering aspects (especially in relation to the R101 inquest), but this book deals more with the personalities and politics, especially Wallis, Burney and Thompson.There really is no substantive coverage, however, on the post-WWI Zeppelins and the US rigids.The book's main strength is that Swinfield makes a rational and level-headed attempt to assess the R101 controversy (criminal incompetence pure and simply, or a technological masterpiece that was unfairly damned after it fell victim to fate and politics?), weighing up the competing claims of Nevil Shute and Roxbee Cox, and trying to step back from the dominance of Shute's book (and to a lesser extent Leasor's "The Millionth Chance"); concluding that the truth is complex and lies between the two.  Its weakness is that the book is mistitled and poorly marketed.  The title should have been something like "British Rigid Airships from World War I to the R101: Politics, Engineering and Disaster", because that is what the book essentially covers.  Despite the dustjacketed photo, the Hindenburg is covered in a page and a half: you'll find more substantive detail and debate about it on Wikipedia.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Three Stars
  

*by M***N on Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2015*

Good, but not as good as I hoped.

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*Product available on Desertcart Italy*
*Store origin: IT*
*Last updated: 2026-01-26*