Question

Section One:

Write a review of “Dirigible Dreams” that answers the following three questions:

1) What was the purpose of the book?

2) Did the author successfully complete the purpose of the book or did he accomplish less than the purpose? Thoroughly explain your positions and reference sections of the book that support your comments.

3) Did you find “Dirigible Dreams” useful in understanding the development of transportation (or not)? Be explicit, offer examples, and tell me what you liked and did not like about the book (and why).

Section Two:

Compare what you learned in “Dirigible Dreams” to the development of another form of transportation. First, identify specific points of comparison, then apply those points of comparison between the development of airships to your chosen “other” form of transportation.

You may choose a form of transportation that was successfully (or unsuccessfully) developed in the past, or a development(s) that is happening today. For example, compare “Dirigible Dreams” to the development of LNG-powered ships.

Answer 1

Section one :

The 'Dirigible Dreams' is a solid work of reportage.It is the story of airships, talks about the manmade flying machine without wings. It writes of the whole period from their futuristic vision to their blimps in modern era. The prpose of the book was to bring to the readers the bygone area of air travel and let them know of the vision of dirigibles and the daring men working with them. The author very carefully has written this nail-biting book which is authorative and readable and bring most readers interest in this aspect.The book recounts fascinating stories of exploration and transatlantic journeys which serves the purpose of the book to captivate readers into the lost golden age of travel.It brings readers interest in modern aviation topic. The story is a factual representation of the stories of dirigibles and the dreamers who pushed this technology beyond its limitation. It is an informative and exciting mix of history and technology. The referance that could be given in support of my review is the case where he starts, is an interesting section to bring curiousity in the mind of readers from the beginning.He writes the account of the fatal Zeppelin Frankfurt-New Jersey flight from the view point of a passenger who survived.

One of the most interesting section of the story and the part that I liked the most was the period from the groundbreaking work of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, to the ill-fated Hindenburg disaster, which brought about the demise of airships as viable modes of transport. Also another great part from the book is where Hiam details the history of dirigibles - from their earliest innovation in that turn of the 20th century through World War II. Great Britain, France, Italy, the United States, and most of all Germany put a lot of effort into programs to build airships.I liked these part because these were interesting stories in the book that I never heard of and were exceptionally exciting to me.Like for example I got to know that there were several attempts also made to reach the North Pole with airships.One such attempt included one venture that killed Roald Amundson and Nobile being strip off of his job of a general.

The only Thing that did not liked about the book is some parts where the writer , Hiam 's writing is a bit dry and bland in tone and could be far better. But anyways the stories and the fascination of the book satisfied me.But that could not be taken that he was a boring writer, he is a wonderful guide to the history of dirigibles and the whole era. It also helped me understand the development of transportation in that era and the efforts taken by the people to develop them in the era where there was not such developed technology.

Section two : The form of transportation that I choose is Maglev - a train transport.

Maglevs have a very high lift -to -drag- ratio , can be higher than dirigibles and even other aircrafts which make them more efficient per kilmeter.but Dirigibles took advantage of low density air of high altitudes to reduce air drag and would travel at higher speed than Maglev trains. Maglevs are also hardly affected bt weather , it can be used even when the weather is a little bad but dirigibles were affected a lot by the weather. Dirigibles were prone to explosion which led to them getting of bygone era but maglevs do not have any such problem.To use dirigibles, security protocols were highly taken care of and was time consuming but Maglevs do not have to follow any such extended protocols. It also did not have to worry of queing for landing etc.