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Loading... Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World (edition 2011)by Sam Howe Verhovek
Work InformationJet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World by Sam Howe Verhovek
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  rabbitprincess | Feb 23, 2020 |   Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World is a history of the first two commercial jets that ushered in the era of modern aviation: The British DeHavilland-produced Comet, and the American Boeing 707. The Comet came out first, but suffered a series of mysterious accidents, and Seattle’s The Boeing Company and the U.S. eventually walked away with the prizes. I chose it for my airplane read, and I found it an excellent introduction to the commercial airline industry. It surprised me with many new nuggets of fact, like how Boeing, known mainly for military aircraft, entering the commercial industry after WWII for the simple reason they’d get better tax breaks from the US government. I love this stuff. I’m an amateur student of all things aviation and space, but the book was not so dense that someone would need a background in aviation to understand it. All sorts of interesting characters and side stories are introduced throughout, so if a reader wishes to read further about Boeing, test pilots, Pan Am and Juan Trippe, or women in aviation, it’s a good jumping-off point. The reviews on Goodreads weren’t outstanding, but I give it five stars, and a strong recommendation. * Detailed in the excellent The Flight 981 Disaster: Tragedy, Treachery, and the Pursuit of Truth, by Samme Chittum. (  ) Cobalt-Jade | Apr 2, 2019 |  ) drmaf | Aug 26, 2018 |  ) yukon92 | Sep 3, 2012 | My review is based on an advance uncorrected proof. ( ) gtown | Mar 20, 2011 | no reviews | add a review
'Verhovek has accomplished the near-impossible in making modern airline travel the subject of a vivid detective story. Anyone who has ever stepped onto an airplane will be interested in this tale.' - James Fallows, national correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly, and author of Free Flight- Inventing the Future of Travel In Jet Age, journalist Sam Howe Verhovek explores the advent of the first generation of jet airliners and the people who designed, built, and flew them. The path to jet travel was triumphal and amazingly rapid-less than fifty years after the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, Great Britain led the world with the first commercial jet plane service. Yet the pioneering British Comet was cursed with a tragic, mysterious flaw, and an upstart Seattle company put a new competitor in the sky- the Boeing 707 Jet Stratoliner. Jet Age vividly re-creates the race between two nations, two global airlines, and two rival teams of brilliant engineers for bragging rights to the first jet service across the Atlantic Ocean in 1958. At the center of this story are great minds and courageous souls, including Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, who spearheaded the development of the Comet, even as two of his sons lost their lives flying earlier models of his aircraft; Bill Allen, Boeing's deceptively mild-mannered president; and Alvin 'Tex' Johnston, Boeing's swashbuckling but supremely skilled test pilot. As the Comet and the Boeing 707 go head-to-head, flying twice as fast and high as the propeller planes that preceded them, the book captures the electrifying spirit of an era- the Jet Age. Yet it also tells the story of how one company with a radically new idea and inspiring leadership can change the world. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)629.133349Technology Engineering and allied operations Other Branches Aviation Aviation engineeringLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.91)
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Wikipedia in English
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The chapters that actually dealt with the Comet and the 707 were interesting. However, the chronology was a bit disjointed, with a chapter suddenly taking us back to the early days of flight, and bits of the world wars interspersed throughout the early chapters. These digressions would have been more interesting in another book. I also found some of the citation a bit thin, like “according to this guy who wrote a pamphlet on the subject for an aviation museum”. The book as a whole seemed to peter out toward the end, making me think it would have made a great series of articles instead.
This book does mention Nevil Shute’s excellent “No Highway” and contains a solid bibliography, so it could be a good starting point for you to read more if you’re interested in the topic. (