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On a wing and a prayer : the race that stopped the world / Di Websdale-Morrissey.

On a wing and a prayer : the race that stopped the world / Di Websdale-Morrissey.
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Item Information
Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Branch Status Due Date
797.52 WEB
Adult Non Fiction   Adult Lending . Available .  
Reserve Title Catalogue Record 774158
. Catalogue Record 774158 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 774158 ItemInfo Top of page .
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9781925773989
9781925774757
Classification 797.52 WEB
Personal Name Websdale-Morrissey, Di
Title On a wing and a prayer : the race that stopped the world / Di Websdale-Morrissey.
Production & Copyright Details Melbourne, VIC : Text Publishing, 2019.
Physical Description 262 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, portraits ; 24 cm.
Content type text
still image
cartographic image
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary Note In 1934, Melbourne?s Lord Mayor announced a London-to-Melbourne air race to celebrate his city?s centenary. The audacious plan captured imaginations across the globe: newspapers and magazines everywhere were filled with it; the world?s pilots scrambled to get sponsorship; and the organisers scrambled to get the rules straight and permission to fly in foreign air space.Sixty-four entrants from eleven countries signed up, but only twenty planes eventually took off on 20 October 1934. The winner arrived in Melbourne seventy-one hours later?but three planes crashed and two pilots died in the attempt. The world followed the progress and applauded the winners, Britain?s Grovsenor House (outright) and The Netherlands? Uiver (on handicap), but the real climax of the story is the astonishing efforts by the town of Albury in saving the Uiver as it battled through a fierce thunderstorm with no navigational aids, guiding the tiny plane to an emergency landing in the middle of the town with the most quick-thinking, imaginative response to its terrifying predicament. This heroic race, considered the greatest single sporting event in the history of aviation, is a tale of eccentric characters, daring deeds and sublime courage. Di Websdale- Morrissey?s page-turning account will have readers holding their breaths, just as the world did eighty-five years ago.
Subject-Meeting Name MacRobertson International Air Race -- MacRobertson International Air Race -- MacRobertson International Air Race -- ((1934)) -- History.
Subject - Topical Term Airplane racing -- History
Airplane racing -- Australia -- History
Airplane racing -- England -- History
Aeronautics -- Flights
Aeronautics -- Competitions
Air pilots -- History
Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award 2020 Nomination
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Catalogue Information 774158 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 774158 Top of page .