Overview

In Fly by Wire, one of America's greatest journalists takes us on a ""fascinating"" (The New York Times) and sometimes humorous journey into the rapidly changing aviation industry. Langewiesche concisely and artfully renders forty years of history in the field by examining the financial problems, the unions, and ultimately the recent advances in technology. And he finds that aviation safety is field in which machine has now surpassed man, but man still manages to find ways -- hubris, ineptitude -- to cause accidents. Advances such as fly by wire suggest that in some cases it may prove best to cede authority to the machines, even if it means questioning our assumptions about human beings and heroism in the process.

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9780312655389

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<p>Praise for Fly by Wire <p> If you think you know the story of Chesley Sullenberger's miraculous ditching of US Airways flight 1549 from the major media coverage, think again. In this short, tightly written yet expansive book, Vanity Fair correspondent Langewiesche ( The Atomic Bazaar ) weaves a page-turning narrative of the ill-fated, three-minute flight, crippled by a bird strike, with several finely honed elements of backstory (the day-to-day lives of airline personnel including Capt. Sully Sullenberger and his crew, an errant flock of geese, and a controversial French-built airplane) into a masterpiece of modern journalism. While most media coverage of the event has focused on Sullenberger's heroic actions, dubbing it the Miracle on the Hudson, Langewiesche eschews such hyperbole and explores every detail of the day's fateful events. Sullenberger and his copilot, Jeffrey Skiles, do come off as heroic, but more for what they did not do--they did not panic, and they did not interfere with the Airbus A320's remarkable computer system controlling the airplane's glide into the Hudson. Just before impact, however, Sullenberger raised the airplanes nose gently, an action that bought time for all the passengers to escape the frigid waters. The sections of the book dealing with the flight itself are soberly rendered, yet gripping. But it is the backstory--including the economic, political, and engineering stories behind the airplane itself--that make this book a true achievement. In this expertly researched book, rendered in spare, pitch-perfect prose, Langewiesche has turned a feel-good tabloid story into an enduring work of literature. -- Publishers Weekly The flight lasted for not much more time than it will take you to read this review. A minute and a half after takeoff, the US Airways jet engines ingested several geese and failed. A little over three minutes later, Capt. Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger gracefully planted the Airbus 320 in the Hudson River, a

<p>&#8220;A crisply, meticulously, and dramatically told account . . . [This] intimately detailed story of how airliners become more intelligent or safer through design mirrors a tale of how airline pilots have become increasingly marginalized in a deregulated, low-cost industry.&#8221; &#8212; The Guardian (UK)&#8220;Langewiesche's journalistic specialty is disaster reconstruction, explaining in deft, clean prose what happens at the far edge of human and technological capability.&#8221; &#8212; The St. Louis Post-Dispatch <br> &#8220; Fly By Wire has drama in it, history in it, and ideas in it. . . . Written for everyone who rides in airliners and wonders what might happen if those powerful jet engines suddenly refused to work.&#8221; &#8212; The Seattle Times <br> &#8220;Compelling . . . Langewiesche's descriptions of accidents are particularly dramatic and convincing.&#8221; &#8212; The New York Times Book Review <br> &#8220;Insightful recounting by a top journalist . . . [contain

<p>Praise for Fly by Wire <p> If you think you know the story of Chesley Sullenberger's miraculous ditching of US Airways flight 1549 from the major media coverage, think again. In this short, tightly written yet expansive book, Vanity Fair correspondent Langewiesche ( The Atomic Bazaar ) weaves a page-turning narrative of the ill-fated, three-minute flight, crippled by a bird strike, with several finely honed elements of backstory (the day-to-day lives of airline personnel including Capt. Sully Sullenberger and his crew, an errant flock of geese, and a controversial French-built airplane) into a masterpiece of modern journalism. While most media coverage of the event has focused on Sullenberger's heroic actions, dubbing it the Miracle on the Hudson, Langewiesche eschews such hyperbole and explores every detail of the day's fateful events. Sullenberger and his copilot, Jeffrey Skiles, do come off as heroic, but more for what they did not do--they did not panic, and they did not

Author Information

William Langewiesche is the author of six previous books: Cutting for Sign, Sahara Unveiled, Inside the Sky, American Ground (North Point Press, 2002), The Outlaw Sea (North Point Press, 2004), and, most recently, The Atomic Bazaar (FSG, 2007). He is the international editor for Vanity Fair.

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