Dodging disaster - on the edge of radical invention James Swift, Jr., son of the great inventor Sir James Swift, has developed a revolutionary airship design. He and his friend Charles Newton attempt to prove the airship's superiority, engaging in a hair-raising air race to Paris. However, old enemies of the Swift family have stolen key plans and are bent on sabotage. Others want the Swift airship to fail... and for their own reasons fail dramatically. But is something even more sinister at work... as James' sister Sandra believes? What calamity threatens Charles' budding romantic interest in Sandra? Or Lady Swift's exploding batteries and electric car, the Phalanx? James Swift and his Airship Laboratory is among the first rare steampunk novels to use correct period technology, generously illustrated with more than thirty drawings, illustrations and photographs. The James Swift series of books are the first books which allow the reader to print out the book's lavish illustrations and to use a 3-D printer to print out the Steampunk inventions illustrated. Caution: Due to references to underground Victorian sexual practices, this book may be unsuitable for younger readers.