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Fly By Wire
Fly By Wire
Apr 19, 2025 3:52 AM

Author:William Langewiesche

Fly By Wire

On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York, when a flock of Canada geese collided with it, destroying both of its engines. Over the next three minutes, the plane's pilot Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, managed to glide to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media sensation, the "The Miracle on the Hudson", and Captain Sully was the hero. But, how much of the success of this dramatic landing can actually be credited to the genius of the pilot? To what extent is the "Miracle on the Hudson" the result of extraordinary - but not widely known, and in some cases quite controversial - advances in aviation and computer technology over the last twenty years?

From the testing laboratories where engineers struggle to build a jet engine that can systematically resist bird attacks, through the creation of the A320 in France, to the political and social forces that have sought to minimize the impact of the revolutionary fly-by-wire technology, William Langewiesche assembles the untold stories necessary to truly understand "The Miracle on the Hudson", and makes us question our assumptions about human beings in modern aviation.

Reviews

Shute was a brilliant storyteller and terrific example for any writer

—— Daily Express

Most of my adult life, perhaps all the worthwhile part of it, has been spent messing about with airplanes

—— Nevil Shute

Any book by Nevil Shute is a delight

—— Punch

The perfect primer on the past and future of DNA

—— Guardian

Amazing and amusing . . . unputdownable

—— The Lady

A story which will inspire many

—— Clitheroe Advertiser and Times

Inspirational reading

—— The Week

A wondrous telling of the history of the very English love affair with gardens and growing things

—— Jon Snow, Channel Four News

The Brother Gardeners is a delightful book. It brings the story of 18th-century gardening to life in a remarkably vivid way, and sheds new light on the personality clashes and prejudices which lay at the root of the Georgians' passion for plants

—— Adrian Tinniswood

The Brother Gardeners were a group of men involved in the 18th-century quest for new plants, at a fascinating period in garden history. Andrea Wulf brings their personalities vividly to life in her thoroughly researched and lively account.

—— Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall

A totally engrossing read

—— Rosie Atkins, Curator, Chelsea Physic Garden

Immaculately written and researched, this book brings to life the dramas and dangers of eighteenth-century plant collecting

—— Catherine Horwood

[An] engrossing history of botanical obsession in England in the 18th century ... The author has a good eye for interesting detail and a fine sense of literary economy

—— Tim Richardson , Country Life

A 'biography' of the quintessential English garden, taking in Captain Cook, Carl Linnaeus, and the simultaneous rise of the British Empire and flower arranging - a delightful look at horticultural history

—— Scotland on Sunday

As Wulf triumphantly shows, plants and gardens reveal a wider view of the forces that shape society ... An antidote to dry garden history; rarely has the story of English plants been told with such vigour, and such fun

—— Jennifer Potter , TLS

The best book this year is The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession

—— Leo Hollis , Independent on Sunday

Andrea Wulf has written a wonderful book, using a clutch of fascinating men to remind us the British Empire was once as much about white pine and Camellia japonica as it was about guns and steel ... enthralling story ... brilliantly readable book

—— Kathryn Hughes , Mail on Sunday
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