December 2000
A bookabout ballooningor airships
usually conjures up breathtaking pictures,
technical prose, or historical facts.Lighter
Than Air,offersarefreshingdiversion.
Set in Paris 1901, beforethe Wright Broth-
ers historicflight, when man only dreamed
Europeatthe turnoftheTwentieth
Century, a continent awash with amazing
technological innovations, and filled with
idealism and self-assurance, as well as the
beautyandromanceof amore innocent
age.Lighter Than Air is based on the real-
lifeadven tureso fAlb erto sSan tos-
Dumont, a Brazilianwho actuallydidfly
through the streets of Paris.
Lighter Than Air,byEdLeefeldt,
softcover4-1/4by6-3/4inches,293
pages,including37black &white illus-
trations. Retail$9.95, ISBN 0-9679535-
0-2, Published by Lighter Than Air, L.P.,
PO Box 2362, Princeton, NJ 08543-2362,
ph on e:609-978-8186 ,Internet :
www.lighterthanair.netemail:
litenair@aol.com.
Sky
The beginning of the Twentieth Cen-
tury brought to life a remarkable aircraft—
a cigar shaped rigid airshipdeveloped by
CountFerdinandvonZeppelin.For the
firstfourdecadesofthatcenturythis
dinosaur was the forefront of technology.
They could covergreat distances and carry
more people in safety than the contempo-
rary airplanes. They led the way in taking
passengersintotheairyrealminthe se-
renecomforttobeexpectedofagreat
oceanliner.Theyledthewayinflying
higher, and were the firsttodemonstrate
thetechniquesformakingaircraftfrom
metal, not wood.
ThisbookisaboutDoctorKarl
Arnstein, a structural engineer, who’s life
would have been verydifferent if not for
two World War’s.He had impressed Count
Zeppelinwhopluckedhimfromditch
digginginWorldWar I toapplyhis tal-
entstobuildingrigidairships.Laterhe
would be brought to the UnitedStates by
PaulW.Litchfield,visionarychairman
andpresidentoftheGoodyear Tire and
Rubber Company, who was an unwaver-
ingpromoterof theideaofcommercial
Zep pelin soperatingfro mtheUnited
States. It was this dream that spurred the
oftheGoodyear-Zeppelin
Corporation. Akron, Ohio would become
asfamousforairshipsasitwouldfor
rubber tires.
Dr.Dale Topping(1917-1993) dur-
ing his career worked forGoodyear Aero-
spaceCorporationandBellAerospace-
Textron.Dr.Toppingwasalsoeditor of
Buoyant Flight, the bulletin of The Lighter-
Than-AirSociety in Akron. He immersed
himselfinlighter-than-airhistory,read-
inghundredsof volumesonthesubject,
andbecamearespectedcriticofsuch
literature.Hespent many years interview-
ingDr.Arnstein.Thisbookrepresents
those years of work and records not only
Arnstein’slife,butthatoftheairship
itself.
EricBrothers,whosucceededTop-
ping as editor ofBuoyant Flight,has taken
theauthorsmeticulousnotesandcom-
pleted the work.
When Giants Roamed the Sky, Karl
Arnstein and the Rise of Airships from
Zeppelin to Goodyear, by Dale Topping,
editedbyEric Brothers tellsthestory of
oneofthetrulygreatengineersofthe
twentiethcentury.300pages,9by10
inches, 62 black & white photographs, 26
color photographs, $39.95 cloth ISBN 1-
88483 6-6 9-0 ,$27.95pap erISBN1-
884836-70-4.Toordercalltollfree1-
877-827-7377.Fax:330-972-8364,In-
ternet: www.uakron.edu/uapress,email:
uapress@uakron.edu.
controlledflight,romance,sabotage,
andmurdertakecenterstageasthree
nationscompetetoruletheskiesand
claim a millionFrancsprize.
Mary Ann, an American woman, ar-
rivesinthecityoflightanddiscovers
adventure—and love—in theskies above.
Ed Leefeldt has crafted a story based on a
real-life flight around the Eiffel Tower in
1901. This bookis pure enjoymentmix-
ing a courageous heroine, cut throat com-
petitors, mystery and intrigue. It recreates
thelook,feel,andtextureofthePenny
Dreadfulnovels popular at the turn of that
century.
And now, as she rose toward the
Eiffel Tower, she realized that this was
herstory. It was in her hands to succeed or
fail. And it was a simple story. There was
no compromise, no one to answer to, no
halfway solutions. She was like one of
those birds in the Region of Fire. No feet,
no claws. To stop was to fall, and to fall
was to die. But whatever happened was
