Airmen Would Not Die

by John G. Fuller

Book Overview

Stranger and even more compelling than his best-selling The Ghost of Flight 401, journalist John G. Fuller turns his talents to the historic crash of the great British dirigible R101, the luxury... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425042731
• ISBN13: 9780425042731
• Release Date: February 1980
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

If You Lost Someone Dear to You - Read this book!

Colorful discriptions of the afterlife - From beyond. This story of true events will put your mind at ease. I have read this book several times and have given it to friends who have lost loved ones...

A CHRONICLE OF MESSAGES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

John G. Fuller does remarkable research and investigative work in examining two cases of air disasters that are linked through paranormal contacts with the deceased. Like his book, The Ghost of Flight 401 (which I also recommend), Fuller brings to life the story of ace flyer Raymond Hinchcliffe, who hoped to be the first to fly across the Atlantic, from Europe to America (Lindberg had already done it the other way). To add spice to the story, a rich young heiress funded his flight and insisted on going with him, figuring to grab some glory for herself as the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. But it was not to be. At the same time period (the late 1920s), Great Britain was working on a program for air travel to facilitate getting around the empire, which was worldwide. But they were not thinking of sending passengers on long-distance trips in the cramped cockpit of a biplane. They were betting on another form of air travel that the Germans were successfully using - the lighter-than-air machine; in this case, a dirigible labeled the R-101. It was a huge cylindrical machine filled with giant bags of hydrogen, and a sizable team of workers were tasked with getting it ready for a virgin flight to India. Lord Thompson had set a date for its flight based on a conference he had to attend, but the engineers, architects and pilots who knew it intimately believed the R101 was not ready for such an undertaking. Like Hinchcliffe's ill-fated flight, the R101 made headlines worldwide when it crashed in a field in France during a rain storm. All but six aboard were killed. And it's the story of what happened after these tragtic deaths that makes Fuller's book so fascinating. First messages were received from Hinchcliffe through a oija board and later through the brilliant medium, Eileen Garrett. Hinchcliffe was concerned for his wife and small children, but also sent messages about what had happened to his flight, along with ominous predictions about the R101 flight to India ending in disaster due to poor design. Later, the deceased crew of the dirigible sent messages through mediums, and two men, each unaware of the work of the other, received communications through medium Eileen Garrett. Later, the communication received by each was available to investigators, who, in every case, concluded that communication with the deceased was the only viable answer to how these messages could have come about. The information received through the medium was often highly technical, dealing with terms, equipment and techniques that only someone who was involved with the dirigible project could have known. The book includes many verbatim exchanges. Of course, these were the result of someone taking shorthand transcription or writing very fast notes. All of these events ocurred before personal tape recorders were available, and the author discusses the methods and their limitations at length. Besides being an interesting account of an important subject (do we

An Unusual Book

This is an unusual book to say the least. John G Fuller became a sort of supernatural detective in the last 25 years of his life(he died in 1990) writing this book along with the best selling Ghost of Flight 401,and The Ghost of 29 Megacycles these also very engaging. What makes his work compelling is the meticulous research and highly rational and objective approach to the subject matter. His first book of this sort was Incident at Exeter about a series of famous flying saucer encounters in Exeter NH in the mid 1960's. It is truly a classic of its kind. A literate , sober jewel in an area not really known for such. This book is the story of two tragic air disasters in England in the late 1920's. One was a solo flight attempted by Captain Raymond Hinchliffe, a famous and decorated WWI Ace and a well known stage actress and pilot of the time named Elsie Mackay who wanted to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic. She was very wealthy and offered Hinchliffe 10,000 Pounds Sterling(an enormous sum at that time) to take her as co-pilot. They left from Lincolnshire in the dead of winter 1928 and were never heard from again. After he had been missing some weeks his wife received a letter from a bereaved mother who has contacted her dead son and reports that Hinchliffe has contacted her through a famous psychic of the time, Eileen Garrett. She informs the wife Captain Hinchliffe is trying to reach her. The real mystery begins at this point and I won't go into further details.It is a very original and compelling ghost story which also involves other ghostly encounters from the doomed airship R 1-01 which crashed in October of 1930 killing all but 7 crew members on a voyage to India. This story in fact is the largest section of the book. I enjoyed this book enormously both for a history --of these British Airships especially---which I knew nothing of and the supernatural aspect which is very compelling and enjoyable. Fuller along with his wife Elizabeth--who also wrote quite a good book on the 401 crash-- do good work and I wish there were more books of this caliber on this kind of subject out there.