China Clipper: The Age of the Great Flying Boats
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Narrated by:
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Thomas Block
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By:
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Robert Gandt
About this listen
When the China Clipper shattered aviation records on its maiden six-day flight from California to the Orient in 1935, the flying boat became an instant celebrity.
This lively history by Robert Gandt traces the development of the great flying boats as both a triumph of technology and a stirring human drama. He examines the political, military, and economic forces that drove its development and explains the aeronautical advances that made the aircraft possible.
©1991 Robert Gandt (P)2015 Robert GandtListeners also enjoyed...
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Jerry Grayson is an ordinary man who chose an extraordinary career. At age 17 he became the youngest helicopter pilot ever to serve in the Royal Navy. By age 25 he was the most decorated peacetime naval pilot in history.
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Great tales of adventure with fascinating facts about helicopters
- By david y muramatsu on 07-17-23
By: Jerry Grayson
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The Burning Shore
- How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America
- By: Ed Offley
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 15, 1942, as thousands of vacationers lounged in the sun on Virginia Beach, a massive fireball erupted from a convoy of oil tankers steaming into Chesapeake Bay. By the next day, three ships lay at the bottom of the channel, victims of Lieutenant-Commander Horst Degen and his crew on the German submarine U-701. In The Burning Shore, acclaimed military reporter Ed Offley presents a thrilling account of Degen's rampage along the American coast and of US Lieutenant Harry J. Kane's quest to bring him down.
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Ugh, Perhaps a Second Listen is Required?
- By Matthew on 09-05-15
By: Ed Offley
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Intrepid Aviators
- The True Story of U.S.S. Intrepid's Torpedo Squadron 18 and Its Epic Clash with the Superbattleship Musashi
- By: Gregory G. Fletcher
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of October 24, 1944, in the Sibuyan Sea amidst the Philippine Islands, VT-18, a close-knit squadron of six young American torpedo bomber pilots, departed the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid on a search and destroy mission. Their target: the super-battleship Musashi, the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The pilots were tasked with preventing the immense enemy warship and the huge naval armada of which she was a part from inflicting unspeakable damage.
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TRUE PICTURE
- By RODNEY K. on 08-04-12
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Enterprise
- America’s Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II
- By: Barrett Tillman
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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America’s most decorated warship of World War II, Enterprise was constantly engaged against the Japanese Empire, earning the title “the fightingest ship” in the navy. Her career was eventful, vital, and short. Commissioned in 1938, her bombers sank a submarine just ten days after the Pearl Harbor attack, claiming the first Japanese vessel lost in the war.
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Great Bio of a Truly Remarkable Ship
- By Aser Tolentino on 09-18-12
By: Barrett Tillman
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Empires of the Sky
- Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World
- By: Alexander Rose
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 22 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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At the dawn of the 20th century, when human flight was still considered an impossibility, Germany’s Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin vied with the Wright Brothers to build the world’s first successful flying machine. As the Wrights labored to invent the airplane, Zeppelin fathered the remarkable airship, sparking a bitter rivalry between the two types of aircraft and their innovators that would last for decades, in the quest to control one of humanity’s most inspiring achievements. And it was the airship—not the airplane—that led the way.
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Actually, a One-Sided Story
- By JP on 08-03-20
By: Alexander Rose
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Grey Wolves
- The U-Boat War 1939–1945
- By: Philip Kaplan
- Narrated by: A. T. Chandler
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early years of the Second World War, the elite force of German submariners known as the Ubootwaffe came perilously close to perfecting underwater battle tactics and successfully cutting Britain's transatlantic lifeline. To the Allies, these enemy sailors were embarking on a mission of unequivocal evil. Each member of the Ubootwaffe understood that he must take pride in being part of a unique brotherhood. He had to do so because he was setting out on a journey that would test his mental and physical endurance to the very limits, and which he had little chance of surviving.
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Like a Jr High Book Report, Performance Bad Too
- By Bill Sayer on 12-03-15
By: Philip Kaplan
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Chasing the Demon
- A Secret History of the Quest for the Sound Barrier, and the Band of American Aces Who Conquered It
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of World War II, the United States accelerated the development of technologies that would give it an advantage over the Soviet Union. Airpower, combined with nuclear weapons, offered a formidable check on Soviet aggression. In 1947, the United States Air Force was established. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers were pioneering a revolutionary new type of aircraft which could do what no other machine had ever done: reach mach 1 - a speed faster than the movement of sound - which pilots called "the demon."
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Not at all what it purports to be
- By John A Stevenson on 11-20-18
By: Dan Hampton
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Kelly
- More Than My Share of It All
- By: Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, Maggie Smith, Brig. Gen. Leo P. Geary USAF - ret. - foreword
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson led the design of such crucial aircraft as the P-38 and Constellation, but he will be more remembered for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. His extraordinary leadership of the Lockheed "Skunk Works" cemented his reputation as a legendary figure in American aerospace management.
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Memoir of a Legend
- By Jean on 08-26-19
By: Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, and others
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The Silver Waterfall
- How America Won the War in the Pacific at Midway
- By: Brendan Simms, Steven McGregor
- Narrated by: David DeVries
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The Battle of Midway was, on paper, an improbable victory for the smaller, less experienced American navy and air force, so much so that it was quickly described as “a miracle.” This new history demonstrates that luck, let alone miracles, had little to do with it. In The Silver Waterfall, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor show how the efforts of America’s peacetime navy combined with creative innovations made by designers and industrialists were largely responsible for the victory.
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Read "The Silver Waterfall"
- By Tiffany Gemas on 06-17-22
By: Brendan Simms, and others
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Lucky 666
- The Impossible Mission
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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From the authors of the New York Times best-selling The Heart of Everything That Is and Halsey's Typhoon comes the dramatic untold story of a daredevil bomber pilot and his misfit crew who fly their lone B-17 into the teeth of the Japanese Empire in 1943, engage in the longest dogfight in history, and change the momentum of the war in the Pacific - but not without making the ultimate sacrifice.
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A WWII Pacific Tale
- By A. L. DeWitt on 11-15-16
By: Bob Drury, and others
What listeners say about China Clipper: The Age of the Great Flying Boats
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Houston1
- 03-14-23
Excellent all around.
Very interesting and in depth discussion of a wonderful age.
A boon you can listen to multiple times and pick up something new each time
His other books are just as interesting.
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- Ryan
- 02-27-16
Excellent overview of commercial flying boats in history
I enjoyed the book. It certainly covered the topic in earnest. Naration was ok. History was not kind to the flying boats.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Frank Donnelly
- 12-10-20
A Very Good History of Flying Boats, Fairly Well Read
This book by Robert Gandt is a well written history of The Great Flying Boats. I really liked the book. There is a lot of technical detail. I did parallel reading and found all of Mister Gandt's information to be accurate.
In its totality, this is a really good product. By that I mean, I purchased the Kindle and audiobook, and also there is a web page for Robert Gandt. There are numerous footnotes, photographs, and sketches in the Kindle and the web page that really added to the entire experience. I would not have enjoyed this audiobook as much without those additional items.
As far as narration, the book is well read and is faithful to the written text. The narrator has a good, but not great, classic narrator voice. I am concerned that is unfair and maybe irrelevant. I could easily follow the narration and did like it.
When the text contained quotes, the narrator added inflections, that I did enjoy, but am not sure was accurate. Spoken communication is more than the actual words. Inflection is a large part of such communication. Again, this is a rather nuanced observation, and may be irrelevant to other listeners. It did not keep me from enjoying the work. I liked it and would listen to the same narrator again.
In summary, I liked this work a lot. I definitely am glad that I was able to read along and look at photographs and study footnotes. Thank You....
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- Carolyn
- 02-16-18
This book is amazing
When it ended I was sad because i wanted to keep listening to it!! I love this book and will read it again in a heart beat!!!!
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- Mike R Morgan
- 02-23-23
Disappointing
If you are an aeronautical engineer, you very well may enjoy this book. Way too much technical data about lifting capacity, load to tare ratios, horsepower, design specs, …. I could have tolerated some of this. This book is just a history of the design and development of sea planes be they American, Germany, British, French…
I wanted to hear about the people and the romance of the San Francisco to China route. The stop overs in Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Wake. About the rich people, the movie stars. There was almost none of this.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Chris Moore
- 07-13-21
Great history, very technical.
This book is loaded with technical data and statistics. That kind of information is right up my alley, but in audiobook form it doesn't have any substance. The actual hard copy of this book is probably amazing. The only downfall to this book was the narrator. He is pretty monotone most of the time and the inflection in his voice was never in the right place or at the appropriate time.
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- A. Mendoza
- 04-20-19
Wonderful
Takes you back to the age of the flying boats, wonderful story of how they developed, matured and became obsolescent.
Great story and well presented
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- Nick3
- 11-29-16
Overall worth a listen
I love books on the history of flight, especially PanAm and the seaplane clippers. I was very excited for this book. However the narrator's voice is just too dry. It's like listening to a bad lecture in a classroom. Its especially hard to follow when the book gets into heavy facts like seaplane model numbers.
Overall i enjoyed the book and learned some great things about the early days of international travel. I just feel it could have been better having been read with a bit more life.
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- D.
- 02-21-16
Great historical background
Great book for the history if flying boats and great tie in with the war. Id listened to his book SkyGods about Pan Am so some was repeat. If you like flying boats .. Listen to this book
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- Nelson A Hill
- 02-08-15
A good read
Lots of information and technology looked at and presented in a well organized format. I enjoyed listening to the back story .
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2 people found this helpful