Aviation

Count Zeppelin and his successors in Germany and Britain backed an invention that failed; but David Sawers describes how, during its lifetime, the airship attracted the enthusiasm of many aeronautical engineers.

Hal Wert tells the story of the two Lithuanian-American aviators, Steponas Darius and Stanley Girenas, whose attempt to bring honour to the land of their birth ended tragically in July 1933.

The great military institution took flight on April 13th, 1912.

Wracked by industrial decline, Britain and France embraced the world’s first supersonic airliner: Concorde.

John Swinfield describes the bizarre politics behind the British government’s attempt to launch a pair of airships in the 1920s and how a project that might have boosted national pride ended in tragedy and failure.

The Hindenburg disaster marked the beginning of the end for travel by dirigible. But airships were once a popular and luxurious way to travel.

John Etty shows the vital importance of aviation in the Stalinist Soviet Union.

In 1926 Umberto Nobile became a hero of Mussolini’s Italy when he piloted Roald Amundsen’s Norge over the North Pole. Two years later his reputation went down with his airship.

Patricia Cleveland-Peck visits Tempelhof which is about to close for ever as an airport.

A figurehead for progress before his political disgrace, in later life Lindberg became concerned about the impact of technology on the environment.