The Flight of the Phoenix is a 1964 novel by Elleston Trevor. The plot involves the crash of a transport aircraft in the middle of a desert and the survivors' desperate attempt to save themselves. It was the basis for a 1965 and later 2004 film adaptation with the same name.

Background

Elleston Trevor (born Trevor-Dudley Smith) (1920-1995) published more than 100 books during his prolific career of more than 50 years. His resume included thrillers, mysteries, plays, short stories and juvenile novels. The Flight of the Phoenix came at the mid-point of his career and led to a bidding war over its film rights. ^[1]

Plot summary

Pilot Frank Towns and navigator Lew Moran are ferrying a mixed bag of passengers out of the Sahara, among them oil workers, a couple of British soldiers and a German who was visiting his brother. An unexpected sandstorm forces the aircraft down, damaging it, killing two of the men, and severely injuring a third.

The survivors wait for rescue but begin to worry as the storm has blown them far off course, away from where searchers would look for them. After several days, Captain Harris marches towards a distant oasis together with another passenger. His aide Sergeant Watson feigns a food allergy and does not join Harris. Days later, Harris barely manages to return to the crash site.

As the water begins to run out, Heinrich Dorfmann a precise, arrogant German aeronautical engineer, proposes a radical solution. He claims they can rebuild a new aircraft from the wreckage, using the only working engine and adding skids to take off. They set to work.

At one point they spot a party of nomadic Arabs. Captain Harris decides to ask them for help, but Sergeant Watson refuses to accompany him. Instead, the doctor - a person familiar with the local Arab dialect - goes with him. The next day, Towns finds their looted bodies, throats cut, and the nomads gone.

Later, Towns finds out that Dorfmann's job is designing model aircraft, not real, full-scale ones. Afraid of the effect on morale, he and Moran keep their discovery secret, though they now believe Dorfmann's plan is doomed. However, they turn out to be wrong. The aircraft is reborn, like the mythical Phoenix. It flies the passengers, lying on the wings, to an oasis and civilization.

Film adaptations

See also

• Coffman engine starter

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Cox, Stephen. It's a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2003. ISBN 1-58182-337-1.
• Eliot, Mark. Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-5221-1.
• Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
• The Jimmy Stewart Museum Home Page. The Jimmy Stewart Museum Home Page. Retrieved: 18 February 2007.
• Jones, Ken D., McClure, Arthur F. and Twomey, Alfred E. The Films of James Stewart. New York: Castle Books, 1970.
• Munn, Michael. Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind The Legend. Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books Inc., 2006. ISBN 1-56980-310-2.
• Pickard, Roy. Jimmy Stewart: A Life in Film. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBN 0-312-08828-0.
• Robbins, Jhan. Everybody's Man: A Biography of Jimmy Stewart. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985. ISBN 0-399-12973-1.
• Thomas, Tony. A Wonderful Life: The Films and Career of James Stewart. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8065-1081-1.

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