The romance of airships and flying boats is still with us today, but with little reference to their inefficiency. The Dornier DoX and the Mayo composite are still regarded as meritable achievements when, in reality, they were no more than bold experiments.

Conversely, aircraft such as the pioneering Il'ya Muromets and the epoch-making de Havilland Comet have been given only grudging acclaim, falling short of the accolades they deserve. Today, supersonic and hypersonic projects are harbingers of technical miracles but economic disasters. This book substitutes fact for wishful thinking.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Forward by Patrick Murphy
Author's Preface
Acknowledgements

1. The Il'ya Muromets (1913-1922)
2. The Lawson Air Line (1919)
3. The Armstrong Seadrome (1923-1943)
4. The Dornier Do X (1929-1933)
5. Legalized Murder (1934)
6. The Big Flying Boats (1931-1948)
7. The Commercial Airships (1919-1937)
8. The Mayo Composite Aircraft (1938)
9. The Romance of Early Air Travel (1910-1940)
10. The First Comet (1932-1954)
11. The Concorde (1976-    )
12. The U.S. SST (1958-1971)
13. Competition by Deregulation (1978-    )
14. Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) and Commercial Helicopters (1960's-1980s)
15. The Specialized Commercial Air Freighter (1946-1966)
16. The DC-3 Replacement (1960s-1970s)
17. The Orient Express
18. The Suspended Monorail

Bibliography
Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ron Davies was born in England, served in the British Army throughout World War II, and subsequently embarked on a career in commercial aviation economic research, first in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, then with British European Airways, and later with various British aircraft companies.

He moved to the United States in 1968, to head up market research for Douglas Aircraft for thirteen years before moving to Washington's Smithsonian Institution, as the Lindbergh Fellow of Aerospace History, then as Curator of Air Transport.

During his industry career, he was closely involved with marketing such aircraft as the Viscount, Ambassador, Britannia, Comet, and Trident; all the Douglas commercial jets; and did the first market studies for the European Airbus, in the late 1960s.