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by C. M. S. Thornton (Author)
"Airship of Dreams" is a true story that can be read by itself, although it is also Book #1 of the VALIANT HEART trilogy. It describes William Palstra's extraordinary life, which ended in 1930 when His Majesty's airship R101 exploded in flames, changing the world forever.
An Air Force pilot and decorated hero, Palstra returns to Australia in 1919, at the end of the First World War. Then follow his marriage and family, his role in the early years of Melbourne University, and his rise through the ranks of the newly-formed Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF).
The decade of the 1920s was the Golden Age of Airships and zeppelins. The stuff of dreams, these enormous, cigar-shaped aircraft glided slowly and majestically across the skies, like fantastic creatures from legend.
The British Empire's R101 was the world's biggest airship at that time. She was fitted out so luxuriously that she has been called The Titanic of the Skies. And like the Titanic, her maiden voyage was doomed.
"Airship of Dreams" tells of this fatal flight, and the repercussions of the tragedy that rippled through time and continues to this day.
