{"product_id":"millionth-chance","title":"Millionth Chance","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e''Mr Leasor''s account of a tragedy that ought not to have happened is full and moving.''\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e''Detailed and gripping.''\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e''A strangely gripping biography of an airship... his book is one which everybody interested in the history of British aviation will find worth reading.''\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Aeronautical Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe R101 was Britain''s greatest aviation gamble. The largest airship ever built, it was hailed as the future of long-distance travel, a revolutionary aircraft said to be \"as safe as houses... except for the millionth chance.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the night of 4 October 1930, that millionth chance arrived.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn one of the worst disasters in British aviation history, the R101 crashed in northern France on its maiden voyage to India. Forty-eight people, including the Secretary of State for Air, lost their lives. Only six survived. The catastrophe ended Britain''s dream of commercial airships almost overnight.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on meticulous research and eyewitness accounts, James Leasor reconstructs the ambition, political pressure and fatal decisions that lay behind the tragedy. Combining the pace of a thriller with the authority of a historian, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Millionth Chance\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e is both a moving account of those who perished and a compelling study of how overconfidence, bureaucracy and political interference can turn technological optimism into catastrophe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492230865269,"sku":"9781917837446","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781917837446.jpg?v=1786529060","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/millionth-chance","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}