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What exactly is White Elephant Technology? White Elephant
Technology is any unusual invention past or present that fails in
the marketplace despite its innovative nature. From jeeps that fly
to tanks that shouldn’t; from a wave-powered boat that took over
three months to reach its destination to a jet-powered train that
shook itself apart, White Elephant Technology showcases each
inventor’s talent for creating something nobody asked for.
Importantly, none of these inventions are speculative. Each one was
built, field tested and worked more or less as planned (except when
it killed its creator). Although success is highly prized, failure
has a lot to teach us, especially when you realise it’s the rule
and not the exception. Still, no one has undertaken a survey of
failed inventions despite history being littered with them …
until now. White Elephant Technology corrects this oversight in an
entertaining, respectful and occasionally humorous manner, proving
that failure is not only as fascinating as success but is also the
purest expression of the human condition.
Almost everything you know about airships is wrong. Between 1917
and 1935, the US Navy poured tens of millions of dollars into their
airship programme, building a series of dirigibles each one more
enormous than the last. These flying behemoths were to be the
future of long-distance transport, competing with trains and ocean
liners to carry people, post and cargo from country to country, and
even across the sea. But by 1936 all these ambitious plans had been
scrapped. What happened? When Giants Ruled the Sky is the story of
how the American rigid airship came within a hair's breadth of
dominating long-distance transportation. It is also the story of
four men whose courage and determination kept the programme going
despite the obstacles thrown in their way - until the Navy
deliberately ignored a fatal design flaw, bringing the programme
crashing back to earth. The subsequent cover-up prevented the truth
from being told for more than eighty years. Now, for the first
time, what really happened can be revealed.
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