Overview

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, Chesley Sully Sullenberger, managed to glide it to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media sensation, 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 past twenty years?

In Fly by Wire, one of America's greatest journalists takes us on a strange and unexpected journey into the fascinating world of advanced aviation. 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.

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9780374157180

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Reviews

<p>Praise for The Atomic Bazaar <p> A gripping, frightening and essential story. --John Freeman, The Denver Post <p> One need read only the first three pages of The Atomic Bazaar to be reminded of William Langewiesche's formidable talent as a journalist whose cool, precise and economical reporting is harnessed to an invigorating moral and intellectual perspective on the world he describes . . . An important book. --Jonathan Raban, The New York Times Book Review <p> Praise for The Outlaw Sea <p> Astonishing . . . As [Langewiesche] demonstrates time and time again in this brave, often electrifying book, [the sea] is a world that is both new and very old, and we ignore it at our peril. --Nathaniel Philbrick, The New York Times Book Review <p> William Langewiesche's enthralling study of the epidemic disorder of our oceans is hard to put down. His prose flows seamlessly and elegantly, effortlessly integrating investigative reporting, political analysis, travel writing and even fil

<p>Praise for The Atomic Bazaar <p>&#8220;A gripping, frightening and essential story.&#8221; &#8212;John Freeman, The Denver Post <p>&#8220;One need read only the first three pages of The Atomic Bazaar to be reminded of William Langewiesche&#8217;s formidable talent as a journalist whose cool, precise and economical reporting is harnessed to an invigorating moral and intellectual perspective on the world he describes . . . An important book.&#8221; &#8212;Jonathan Raban, The New York Times Book Review <p>&nbsp;Praise for The Outlaw Sea <p>&#8220;Astonishing . . . As [Langewiesche] demonstrates time and time again in this brave, often electrifying book, [the sea] is a world that is both new and very old, and we ignore it at our peril.&#8221; &#8212;Nathaniel Philbrick, The New York Times Book Review <p>&#8220;William Langewiesche&#8217;s enthralling study of the epidemic disorder of our oceans is hard to put down. His prose flows seamlessly and elegantly, effortlessly integratin

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