Titoli in Trasporti

Henry Ford, an American folk hero to many, was a man with several faces. He was a genius who revolutionized the automobile industry, irrevocably altered American culture and commerce, developed mass production, and helped the middle class emerge in America. He was also an anti-Semitic autocrat who hated Wall Street, bankers and financiers with unmitigated passion.

Here's a biographical profile of Charles and J. Frank Duryea, two visionaries who were among the first to recognize the potential of the automobile. In 1892 they built America's first gasoline-powered car and had it running successfully the following year.

Here's a biographical profile of the Duesenberg brothers, Augie and Fred, who built some of America's most famous cars, cars that today sell for millions at auctions. Jay Leno, owner of an extensive classic car collection, calls the Duesenberg SJ his favorite car. He feels it is "probably the greatest American car" ever built. The Duesenberg name evokes images of a European heritage, an automobile built in the image and traditions of iconic stalwarts such as Mercedes, Benz, Bugatti and Ferrari.

Here's a biographical profile of John and Horace Dodge, the fabulously wealthy Detroit automobile pioneers who reveled in yachts, estates and producing great cars. Unfortunately, John and Horace's lifestyles were unacceptable to the social elite in Detroit; they regarded the brothers as uncultured, crude and boorish. And they probably were, but it bothered the brothers not at all.

Buick is one of the best known automobile brands today as it was more than a century ago. But unlike other automobile pioneers, Ford, Dodge, and Olds, who became rich and famous with their car companies, Buick prospered not at all from his namesake. Although Buick was a visionary and an outstanding engineer, he simply did not have all the tools to succeed, lacking management sense among other things.

On June 12, 1972, a powerful explosion rocked American Airlines Flight 96 a mere five minutes after its takeoff from Detroit. The explosion ripped a gaping hole in the bottom of the aircraft and jammed the hydraulic controls. Miraculously, despite the damage and ensuing chaos, the pilots were able to land the plane safely. Less than two years later, on March 3, 1974, a sudden, forceful blowout tore through Turk Hava Yollari (THY) Flight 981 from Paris to London. THY Flight 981 was not as lucky as Flight 96: it crashed in a forest in France.

This one-volume anthology provides a comprehensive analysis of the role that air power has played in military conflicts over the past century. Comprising 16 essays penned by a global cadre of leading military experts, A History of Air Warfare chronologically examines the utility of air power from World War I to the second Lebanon war, campaign by campaign.

On April 12, 1862—one year to the day after Confederate guns opened on Fort Sumter and started the Civil War—a tall, mysterious smuggler and self-appointed Union spy named James J. Andrews and 19 infantry volunteers infiltrated Georgia and stole a steam engine called the General. Racing northward at speeds near 60 miles an hour, cutting telegraph lines, and destroying track along the way, Andrews planned to open East Tennessee to the Union army, cutting off men and materiel from the Confederate forces in Virginia.

During the height of the blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard dispatched a patrol boat, but was soon in as much trouble as the tanker. Then pilot boat captain Frank Quirk, hearing of the Coast Guard's troubles on his radio, decided to act.

AV on History: Amelia Earhart presents her disappearance as it was experienced at the time—through official reports, radio transmissions, press coverage, and the historical record as it stands today. This is not a biographical tribute, nor a speculative true-crime retelling. It is a documented investigation into what was known, what was reported, and where the record ultimately ends.

Brought to you by Penguin. A broken heart and a moment of drunken bravado inspires middle-aged, and typically rather cautious, journalist Mike Carter to take off on a life-changing six month motorcycle trip around Europe. Never mind that he hadn't been on two wheels since an inglorious...

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK One woman. One ship. One astonishing true story. ‘Hear the wind whistle through the ropes, taste the salt spray and feel the roll of the ship…. A true-life epic.’ Peter Fretwell, author of Antarctic Atlas Summer 1856. Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her...

Sometimes you come across a lofty railway viaduct marooned in the middle of a remote country landscape. Or a crumbling platform from some once-bustling junction buried under the buddleia. If you are lucky you might be able to follow some rusting tracks or explore an old tunnel leading to...well, who knows where? Listen hard. Is that the wind in the undergrowth? Or the spectre of a train from a golden era of the past panting up the embankment?

In the seven decades since the darkest moments of the Second World War it seems every tenebrous corner of the conflict has been laid bare, prodded and examined from every perspective of military and social history. But there is a story that has hitherto been largely overlooked. It is a tale of quiet heroism, a story of ordinary people who fought, with enormous self-sacrifice, not with tanks and guns, but with elbow grease and determination. It is the story of the British railways...

Written by an airline pilot and a clinical psychologist, this combination of practical explanation and self-help techniques is the definitive guide to help nervous passengers overcome their fear of flying. Lighthearted, unpatronising and informative.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST TEST PILOT TELLS HIS STORY 'When you read through his life story, it makes James Bond seem like a bit of a slacker' Kirsty Young, Desert Island Discs 'The greatest test pilot who ever lived. A true inspiration' Tim Peake, astronaut and former regular British Army Air Corps...

From renowned writer and travel journalist Gary Krist comes the never-before-told story of one of the worst rail disasters in U.S. history in which two trains full of people, trapped high in the Cascade Mountains, are hit by a devastating avalanche. In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard...

Michael Williams has spent the past year travelling along the fascinating rail byways of Britain for this new collection of journeys. Here is the 'train to the end of the world' running for more than four splendid hours through lake, loch and moorland from Inverness to Wick, the most northerly town in Britain. He discovers a perfect country branch line in London’s commuterland, and travels on one of the slowest services in the land along the shores of the lovely Dovey estuary to the far west of Wales. Here is a unique travel companion celebrating the treasures of our railway heritage....

Brought to you by Penguin. The riveting true story of a legendary Spanish galleon that sunk with over $1 billion in gold and silver—and one man’s obsessive quest to find it—from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth Roger Dooley wasn’t looking for the...

From Myanmar's highlands to the British Pennines, from slow travel between coffee plantations in Borneo to a cross-continent odyssey on African railways, from the pioneers of the American West to European trains in war, this is a new prism through which to explore human lives, and global landscapes, politics and history. The Untold Railway Stories is a testament to both the joy and impact of train travel - to the ambition and ingenuity, and also to destruction and sacrifice within its history - and is published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the first passenger railway line.