Book Review: The Vanishing Airliner by Van Powell
Rodney Ellis is the son of an aircraft designer whose firm is on the verge of bankruptcy after the Crash of 1929 and the crash of a previous airplane designed by his company. Mr. Ellis’ one hope is his new airliner, the Oakland Queen. He hopes to demonstrate it for a group of wealthy investors called the “Billion Dollar Club.” Seventeen year old Rod and his 15 year old chums, fraternal twins Tim and Pat Kelly, are on the flight to where the investors are when Pat notices that the plane is off course.
When the plane lands in an effort to solve this mystery, the boys become separated, and a curious message is found that seems to indicate Mr. Ellis is up to no good. Rod manages to find a radio buff named Ted who is much more closely involved with the matter than either of them could guess, and exciting adventures ensue!
This is a boys’ adventure book from 1932, full of daredevil piloting, narrow escapes and Mexican bandits. While aviation had advanced quite a bit, it was still a chancy business involving a lot of guesswork and improvisation; much wordage is given to the operations of the various flying machines. There’s also reference to the Boy Scouts, with Rod being in favor of creating a Sky Scouts branch of that organization.
Rod is your standard clean-jawed, heroic youth; Tim and Pat have slightly more characterization (Tim is thin and quick-witted, Pat heavier and slower of thought but better at seeing deep implications.) Ted is more or less a less active version of Rod.
There’s a certain amount of period racism involved in the treatment of the Mexican bandits (they need a white American to actually make plans and operate technology) whose primary activity is smuggling illegal immigrants across the border. (Back in the 1930s, it was Asian immigrants who came in from Mexico.) The story sidesteps sexism by simply never mentioning the existence of women.
The Great Depression plays a larger role in the story than I expected, tying into the real villain’s motives. The plot is twisty, and at least one character does some things early on that don’t make sense considering who he turns out to be. The ending is rather unsatisfying–the villain reveals everything in a massive rant, then self-destructs, tying things up neatly.
This book is less bad than severely dated–boys might enjoy it if they can get past the old-fashioned style and characters. It’s apparently never been reprinted, so good luck hunting down a copy!
