His Majesty's Airship

The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine

By: S. C. Gwynne

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

From historian and bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon comes a “captivating, thoroughly researched” (The New York Times Book Review) tale of the rise and fall of the world’s largest airship—and the doomed love story between an ambitious British officer and a married Romanian princess at its heart.

The tragic fate of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later—has been largely forgotten. In His Majesty’s Airship, S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of great ambition gone terribly wrong.

Airships, those airborne leviathans that occupied center stage in the world in the first half of the 20th century, were a symbol of the future. R101 was not just the largest aircraft ever to have flown and the product of the world’s most advanced engineering—she was also the lynchpin of an imperial British scheme to link by air the far-flung areas of its empire, from Australia to India, South Africa, Canada, Egypt, and Singapore. No one had ever conceived of anything like this, and R101 captivated the world. There was just one problem: beyond the hype and technological wonders, these big, steel-framed, hydrogen-filled airships were a dangerously bad idea.

Gwynne’s chronicle features a cast of remarkable—and tragically flawed—characters, including Lord Christopher Thomson, the man who dreamed up the Imperial Airship Scheme and then relentlessly pushed R101 to her destruction; Princess Marthe Bibesco, the celebrated writer and glamorous socialite with whom he had a long affair; and George Herbert Scott, a national hero who was the first person to cross the Atlantic twice in any aircraft, in 1919—eight years before Lindbergh’s famous flight—but who devolved into drink and ruin. These historical figures—and the ship they built, flew, and crashed—come together in “a Promethean tale of unlimited ambitions and technical limitations, airy dreams and explosive endings” (The Wall Street Journal).

©2023 Samuel C. Gwynne. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

A fascinating account, I can’t believe I have never heard of this ship

This is such a fascinating story of a part of history I knew so little about. The only ship I had ever heard of was the German Hindenburg. But wow, there is so much more to the history of these rigid airship’s. I still can’t even believe they even flew Safely for as long as they did. I highly recommend this book if you love aeronautics and history.

Meticulous and compelling

This is the accounting of the British answer to Germany’s Graf zeppelin program. Kristen, the HMS R101, the British crown attempted to meet and exceed German engineering and have these massive airships be the answer to help them travel to the far reaches of their empire.

Well researched and told.

Excellent overview of airship history

I enjoyed this book as it covered quite a bit of airship history. Hard to believe that such vessels were ever created true behemoths of the skies.

Grand dreams and wishful thinking

It's stunning to think how many people's lives and livelihoods were lost to the grand dreams. The complexities of operating a rigid airship really come out in this tail. And the unlikely event that any would ever be practical make me wonder how long it will take the latest crop of airships to come a cropper.

Delightfully written and read!

My knowledge of the R-101 disaster was little more than the bizarre image of Napoleon as airship in the Monty Python skit. Seeing the subject matter and author the opportunity was there to address the deficiency. Just a masterfully told tale, weaving the narrative of the doomed flight into a broader tale of aviation history in general and airship history in detail, and adding some politics and human interest elements to give life to key players. It kept my interest almost nonstop from start to finish. Thoroughly enjoyed!

Fascinating and informative

Wow--I learned a lot from this book! It's fascinating that there was such a "next big thing" buildup around something that (this book argues) was such a thorough failure, almost from its inception.

I had no idea

I’m a WWII puff of sorts. Picked the book up as a lark. The book taught me a great deal about something I knew very little about. The presentation and content were excellent. Thanks for the education.

History At Its Best

If you love history, you'll love this book. I was mesmerized by the story itself and then the reader did such a great job that I want to hear more every time I listened to a little. The story of an airship does not sound exciting, but this story was filled with excitement, intrigue, love, and tragedy. If you're looking for a delightful history, that has a compelling narrator, and you want to learn something about airship development in the early 20th century, this is the book for you.

Interesting

A great wealth of information on a topic totally unfamiliar with myself 💨🌬️I was not a fan of the referenced footnotes being included 🧐

Great book, great narration!

The story was very interesting, a large piece of history not often taught, a reminder that sometimes we need to cut our losses and not dig in