
The Big Hop
The First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Future
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $17.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jeremy Clyde
-
By:
-
David Rooney
About this listen
The inspiring story of a pathbreaking 1919 flight and the courageous fliers who risked their lives to make aviation history.
In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in "the Big Hop": an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying sixteen-hour flight, made it to Ireland.
Celebrated on both continents, the transatlantic contest offered a surge of inspiration―and a welcome distraction―to a public reeling from the Great War and the influenza pandemic. But the seven airmen who made the attempt were quickly forgotten, their achievement overshadowed by the solo Atlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart years later. In The Big Hop, David Rooney grants the pioneering aviators of 1919 the spotlight they deserve. From Harry Hawker, the pilot who as a young man had watched Houdini fly over his native Australia, to the engineer Ted Brown, a US citizen who joined the Royal Flying Corps, Rooney traces the lives of the unassuming men who performed extraordinary acts in the sky.
©2025 David Rooney (P)2025 Penguin AudioPeople who viewed this also viewed...
-
American Patriot
- The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day
- By: Robert Coram
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the course of his military career, Bud Day won every available combat medal, escaped death on no less than seven occasions, and spent 67 months as a POW in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, along with John McCain. Despite sustained torture, Day would not break. He became a hero to POWs everywhere—a man who fought without pause, not a prisoner of war, but a prisoner at war.
By: Robert Coram
-
The Stolen Crown
- By: Tracy Borman
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the long and dramatic annals of British history, no transition from one monarch to another has been as fraught and consequential as that which ended the Tudor dynasty and launched the Stuart in March 1603. At her death, Elizabeth I had reigned for forty-four turbulent years, facing many threats, whether external from Spain or internal from her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. But no danger was greater than the uncertainty over who would succeed her, which only intensified as her reign lengthened.
By: Tracy Borman
-
Amazing Grace
- William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
- By: Eric Metaxas
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament. At the center of this heroic life was a passionate twenty-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.
By: Eric Metaxas
-
City of Wood
- San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry
- By: James Michael Buckley
- Narrated by: Rick Barr
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California's 1849 gold rush triggered creation of the "instant city" of San Francisco as a base to exploit the rich natural resources of the American West. City of Wood examines how capitalists and workers logged the state's vast redwood forests to create the financial capital and construction materials needed to build the regional metropolis of San Francisco. Architectural historian James Michael Buckley investigates the remote forest and its urban core as two poles of a regional "city."
-
Ring of Fire
- A New History of the World at War: 1914
- By: Nicolai Eberholst, Alexandra Churchill
- Narrated by: Alexandra Churchill
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the start of World War I in 1914, many global citizens believed it would be a short conflict that would settle old scores in a matter of weeks—but it was soon clear that was not going to be the case. From the Balkans to East Prussia, France, and Belgium, nineteenth-century warfare came face to face with twentieth-century technology and the ensuing, brutal clash of empires resulted in deadlock. And it was a truly global war, stretching from Europe to Oceania, from the Middle East to North America.
By: Nicolai Eberholst, and others
-
The Age of Revolutions
- And the Generations Who Made It
- By: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The revolutions that raged across Europe and the Americas over seven decades, from 1760 to 1825, created the modern world. Revolutionaries shattered empires, toppled social hierarchies, and birthed a world of republics. But old injustices lingered on and the powerful engines of revolutionary change created new and insidious forms of inequality. In The Age of Revolutions, historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal offers the first narrative history of this entire era.
-
American Patriot
- The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day
- By: Robert Coram
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the course of his military career, Bud Day won every available combat medal, escaped death on no less than seven occasions, and spent 67 months as a POW in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, along with John McCain. Despite sustained torture, Day would not break. He became a hero to POWs everywhere—a man who fought without pause, not a prisoner of war, but a prisoner at war.
By: Robert Coram
-
The Stolen Crown
- By: Tracy Borman
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the long and dramatic annals of British history, no transition from one monarch to another has been as fraught and consequential as that which ended the Tudor dynasty and launched the Stuart in March 1603. At her death, Elizabeth I had reigned for forty-four turbulent years, facing many threats, whether external from Spain or internal from her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. But no danger was greater than the uncertainty over who would succeed her, which only intensified as her reign lengthened.
By: Tracy Borman
-
Amazing Grace
- William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
- By: Eric Metaxas
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament. At the center of this heroic life was a passionate twenty-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.
By: Eric Metaxas
-
City of Wood
- San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry
- By: James Michael Buckley
- Narrated by: Rick Barr
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California's 1849 gold rush triggered creation of the "instant city" of San Francisco as a base to exploit the rich natural resources of the American West. City of Wood examines how capitalists and workers logged the state's vast redwood forests to create the financial capital and construction materials needed to build the regional metropolis of San Francisco. Architectural historian James Michael Buckley investigates the remote forest and its urban core as two poles of a regional "city."
-
Ring of Fire
- A New History of the World at War: 1914
- By: Nicolai Eberholst, Alexandra Churchill
- Narrated by: Alexandra Churchill
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the start of World War I in 1914, many global citizens believed it would be a short conflict that would settle old scores in a matter of weeks—but it was soon clear that was not going to be the case. From the Balkans to East Prussia, France, and Belgium, nineteenth-century warfare came face to face with twentieth-century technology and the ensuing, brutal clash of empires resulted in deadlock. And it was a truly global war, stretching from Europe to Oceania, from the Middle East to North America.
By: Nicolai Eberholst, and others
-
The Age of Revolutions
- And the Generations Who Made It
- By: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The revolutions that raged across Europe and the Americas over seven decades, from 1760 to 1825, created the modern world. Revolutionaries shattered empires, toppled social hierarchies, and birthed a world of republics. But old injustices lingered on and the powerful engines of revolutionary change created new and insidious forms of inequality. In The Age of Revolutions, historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal offers the first narrative history of this entire era.
-
Fury and Ice
- Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II
- By: Peter Harmsen
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The wartime interest in Greenland was a direct result of its vital strategic position—if you wanted to predict the weather in Europe, you had to have men in place on the vast, frozen island. The most celebrated example of Greenland's crucial contribution to Allied meteorological services is the correct weather forecast in June 1944 leading to the decision to launch the invasion of Normandy. In addition, both before and after D-Day a stream of weather reports from Greenland was essential for the Allied ability to carry out the bombing offensive against Germany.
By: Peter Harmsen
-
Beyond Jefferson
- The Hemingses, the Randolphs, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America
- By: Christa Dierksheide
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Declaration of Independence identified two core principles—independence and equality—that defined the American Revolution and the nation forged in 1776. Jefferson believed that each new generation of Americans would have to look to the "experience of the present" rather than the "wisdom" of the past to interpret and apply these principles in new and progressive ways.
-
The Place of Tides
- By: James Rebanks
- Narrated by: Bryan Dick
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on. Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly—and yet strangely familiar.
-
-
the peace brought to the soul by a work of passion
- By Susan Rabern on 06-29-25
By: James Rebanks
-
The CIA Book Club
- The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature
- By: Charlie English
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For nearly five decades after the Second World War, the Iron Curtain divided Europe, forming the longest and most heavily guarded border on earth. No physical combat would take place along this frontier: the risk of nuclear annihilation was too high for that. Instead, the war was fought psychologically. It was a battle for hearts, minds, and intellects. Few understood this more clearly than George Minden, head of a covert intelligence operation known as the “CIA book program,” which aimed to undermine Soviet censorship and inspire revolt by offering different visions of thought and culture.
By: Charlie English
-
Agents of Change
- The Women Who Transformed the CIA
- By: Christina Hillsberg
- Narrated by: Valerie Plame, Christina Hillsberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through exclusive interviews with current and former female CIA officers, many of whom have never spoken publicly, Agents of Change tells an enthralling and, at times, disturbing story set against the backdrop of the evolving women’s movement. It was the 1960s, a “secretarial” era, when women first gained a foothold and pushed against the one-dimensional, pop-culture trope of the sexy Cold War Bond Girl. Underestimated but undaunted, they fought their way, decade-by-decade, through adversity to the top of the spy game.
-
The Beast in the Clouds
- The Roosevelt Brothers's Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda
- By: Nathalia Holt
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology.
By: Nathalia Holt