11 - The Airship and Airplane Duel

Summary

This chapter provides further evidence of the uncertainty and unpredictability of innovation through a detailed description of the competitive process between airships and airplanes before the end of the 1930s. Both the airship and airplane were created by the imagination of entrepreneurs. While Count Zeppelin, the inventor of the airship, once predicted that the airplane would just be a footnote in the history of aviation, looking back more than 100 years later, contrary to his prediction, the airship became a footnote in aviation history. This is the most detailed and complete case study in the book and is extremely enlightening for understanding entrepreneurship and innovation.