His Majesty's Airship

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

By: S. C. Gwynne

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton

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).

Critic reviews

"Nicholas Boulton’s smooth narration is perfect for this well-researched historical account of the ill-fated experimental British rigid airship, the R101...Boulton’s keen sense for wry humor, especially apparent when relaying footnotes, underscores the absurdity of the political and military imperatives that hastened the R101’s flight to India in October 1930 without rigorous testing and adjustments. Aviation history buffs will find this a compelling production."

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 🧐

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.

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.

Great Book on an obscure subject.

I thought the book was well written, and well read. It is an obscure subject, that I found much more interesting than I thought I would.