Few people realize that Zeppelins carried thousands of paying passengers millions of miles without a single fatality for more than 20 years. As a result, Zeppelins had the best safety record of any form of commercial transportation until the Hindenburg crash in 1937. And Germany wasn’t the only country invested in the success of commercial airships. During the first thirty years of the 20th century France, England, Italy, Spain, Japan, the Soviet Union, and Argentina were just some of the many countries that built and flew airships. Incredibly, the United States Navy spent millions of dollars building Zeppelins that were not only designed to protect Hawaii and California from a surprise attack by Japan in the days before radar, but promoted as the next form of long-distance transportation competing with luxury ocean liners and transcontinental trains for first class passengers. A survey of this fascinating but little-known period of aviation history will include remarkable photographs, first person accounts, and rare film clips.

This course is based on research for my recent non-fiction book, When Giants Ruled the Sky (The History Press, 2022). It will have four, 90 minute, Zoom classes held from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM Pacific Time on Wednesday May 3, 10, 17, and 24. The course is sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. For more information visit: https://olli.berkeley.edu/