Lighter Than Air: An Illustrated History of Balloons and Airships

by Tom D. Crouch

This richly illustrated book chronicles lighter-than-air flight from Archimedes’ discovery of the principle of buoyancy to the latest in sport balloons and plans for future airships. Far more than a timeline of events, Lighter Than Air focuses on the people―flamboyant and daring, heroes and scoundrels―who made history in the sky. Here are the eighteenth-century pioneers who first took to the skies, the peripatetic aeronauts who criss-crossed two continents a century later, the airmen who manned the great rigid airships, and the intrepid balloonists who flew their craft across oceans and continents in the years following World War II. The first half of the volume recounts the invention of the balloon, the golden age of the professional aerial showmen in Europe and America, the use of balloons for aerial reconnaissance, and the key role of balloons in scientific research. The second half presents the rich tale of the airship from eighteenth-century dreams to twentieth-century reality. These chapters describe the early development of the pressure airship, the emergence of the rigid airship and its golden age in the first half of the twentieth century, and the military and civil applications of these aerial behemoths. The author concludes by discussing modern blimps, sport balloons, and dreams of a future for airships. The highly accessible text is complemented with a wealth of prints and photos from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the Museé de l’Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget, the Zepplin-Museum at Zepplinheim, and the Imperial War Museum in London. Written by award-winning aeronautical historian Tom D. Crouch, Lighter Than Air brings to life the color and excitement of buoyant flight.

Genres: Aviation, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Tom Day Crouch is curator emeritus of the Smithsonian, where he served both the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of American History in a variety of curatorial and administrative posts. Prior to coming to the Smithsonian he was employed by the Ohio Historical Society as director of education (1969-1973) and as director, Ohio American Revolution Bicentennial Advisory Commission (1973-1974).

Crouch earned a BA in history from Ohio University in 1962, an MA in history from Miami University in 1968, and a PhD in history from the Ohio State University in 1976.

Reviews

[Eileen W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and well-researched.

However, the organization of information made it difficult to keep track of the timeline; the book is not completely in chronological order. The timeline at the end of the book helps rectify this, to an extent. Also, the book is sometimes rather dry; it was hard to remember the various statistics, such as how large so-and-so balloon was, etc.

Overall, the book was extremely helpful and informational. The details on the publicity provided to various flights was a good touch.

[Dixie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be on one. It would be so cool.

[Daniel L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nowhere to Go but Up

"For the world's oldest flight technology," says Tom D. Crouch in introduction, "it seems there is still no place to go but up." Although In the history of flight, the lighter-than-air balloon is much older than heavier-than-air aircraft, the balloon keeps on evolving, finding new applications along the way. In 1783, Parisians for the first time marveled at the astonishing sight of two humans leaving "the surly bonds of earth," defying gravity and floating aboard "a wondrous craft that was the product of human brains and hands." The late eighteenth century was the eve of the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Reason. Science and technology held all sorts of promises and potential. After all, "in an age when human beings could fly, what other wonders might the future hold?"

Tom Crouch, the award-winning writer from the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, offers in this highly accessible book an overview a history of lighter-than-air aircraft from the science of antiquity to the science of the space age, along with all the excitement these machines have brought along the way and continue to bring. "Why did it take so long to learn to fly?" asks Crouch in opening the first chapter, "Clouds in a Bag." After all, the Greek philosopher Archimedes (287-212 BC) figured out the principle of an object being able to float when it is lighter than the fluid it displaces. In the East, the Chinese for many years crated paper lanterns that floated in the air. Why, then, was it not until the Mongolfiers created hotter-than-air balloons on a larger scale that the technology would be able to be applied to human flight? Nearly a century and a half before the first balloon flight, the invention several scientists were working on the principles of creating vacuums, made possible by Otto von Guericke's invention of the vacuum pump. Bartolomeu Lourenco de Gusmao created the first model of a vacuum sphere rising, but a craft on the scale sufficiently large to carry a human aloft eluded him. It remained to the sciences of harnessing hot air and helium to pave the way for lighter-than-air craft.

In "The Newborn Babe Comes of Age," Crouch discusses the great balloon adventures (and adventurers) of the late 18th and 19th centuries. As with heavier-than-air machines in the 20th century, inventors kept busy finding military applications for this new aeronautical technology. While the balloon offered a valuable reconnaissance platform, their value of a form of transportation was limited by the directions the winds at a given time could take them. And that takes us to the third chapter, "Navigating the Air." To steer a balloon, one needed a power source, suspended by a sturdy network of ropes - the dirigible airship. Alberto Santos-Dumont, who was also the first man to fly in Europe, was one of the noteworthy pioneers, exciting the crowds of Paris when he was the first to circumnavigate the Eiffel Tower, itself a monument of engineering, technology, and industrial art. Ferdinand von Zeppelin seized on the idea of incorporating the two components of the dirigible and combining them into rigid airships, huge sleek silver fish in the sky.

The history of lighter-than-air machines does not follow a linear path. The two World Wars and the period between them saw the re-emergence of nonrigid airships for specific duties, "Fabulous Silvery Fishes," as Crouch calls them. The fiery crash of the Hindenburg sealed the fate of the futuristic rigid airships, leaving non-rigid airships and modern balloons to take their place in ruling the skies, along with their heavier-than-air brethren. After World War II, helium balloons proved to be very valuable tools for high-altitude atmospheric research. These sophisticated balloons, only looking like their venerable forebears, could climb to altitudes at which the air is too thin to provide lift for fixed-wing aircraft, as covered in the fifth chapter, "Science in the Sky."

Balloons experienced a another renaissance - as a medium of sport. Don Piccard is a particularly noteworthy figure in bringing balloons to the public, making them affordable to not just the super-rich. Another aspect of sport ballooning is in the use of lighter-than-air envelopes to carry highly sophisticated high-tech gondolas and their human occupants on record-breaking voyages around the world. In perusing about the history and future of lighter-than-air machines, the reader is sure to enjoy Mr. Crouch's excellent writing to make the history as interesting as the sight of a hot-air balloon or zeppelin floating overhead.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of the history of hot air ballooning. Some great stories, such as the people of Gonesse in France attacking one of the first hot air balloons with farm implements - they thought it was a hissing demon. I also liked the details of the great Zeppelins - the only way to travel! And the fact that the Incas may have created the first hot air balloon. Perhaps we'll know for sure one day.