Looking for name of SST novel

[Bogart]

I was in a used bookstore a while back and came across a paperback about the first commercial supersonic flight. I cannot remember the title or name of the author, but it looked to be from the '70 or '80s and the blurb on the back noted the flight was from London to New York and (surprise surprise) something catastrophic happens en route. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

[Saint Jack]

I belive you're referring to 'By the Rivers Of Babylon' by Nelson DeMile. An interesting read though a very implausible plot.

[Bogart]

I did read "By the Rivers of Babylon", and agree with your description - far-fetched but fun! This book was by an author I've never heard of and I believe the title had two or three words in it. Sorry this is so vague but I spend a good bit of time in bookstores and the names all blur together!

[GraemeWi]

Orbit by Thomas Block could be another potential title?

[Jhieminga]

Wasn't there a sequel to 'Airport' that featured a SST? I was going to say that it's not 'By the Rivers of Babylon' but others beat me to it. That is an enjoyable book though, Nelson deMille has more novels that I would recommend, but that doesn't answer the main question here.

[JEM60]

I believe it was 'Mayday' by Thomas Block. It concerend an SST that was accidently shot down by a missile from an F.18 Hornet. Very good reading. It was most definately not 'By the Rivers of Babylon'. Totally different scenarion tho'also good fun to read.

[Bogart]

Thanks for the quick feedback, but the author was not Block. And it wasn't Supersonic by Basil Jackson (that's a title and author that sticks in your mind!) or Control Tower by Robert P. Davis.

[goofer]

There was "A Leap in the Dark" about a thinly-disguised Concorde called the "Cordiale." Quite a good read, as I recall.

Also a book whose name I forget about a US SST called - implausibly - "The Screaming Aardvark." Fair old rubbish!

General point about aviation fiction - nothing beats David Beaty, except perhaps Ernest Gann and (some) Nevil Shute.

Goofer

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

It might be "Flight One" by a chap called Carpentier, 1972.

[stepwilk]

Interesting...Tom Block and Nelson DeMille (not DeMile) are both friends of mine. Tom was my multi-engine tutor, back when he was still a young Mohawk captain. The youngest in their history, in fact. (Mohawk became Allegheny, which became USAirways, and Tom retired in the '90s--smartly early--as a very senior international 767 captain.)

Anyway, Tom and Nelson went to high school together on Long Island (NY) and were very close friends, which is how I know Nelson. (By the way, for those who don't know Nelson's name as an author, I suspect he makes at least as much money as, if not more than, Tom Clancy. He writes a seemingly endless series of very good "airport novels," as they're generally called over here--the kind of fat paperback you buy at the airport to read in flight. He is HUGELY popular.)

Tom once told me that he and Nelson had made a deal, back when they were young guys hoping to become writers, that each would help the other with their work and they'd share any profits 50/50. Don't know if the deal still pertains, 50+ years later, but I do know that Nelson still goes to Tom when he needs any aviation input for something he's writing.

But I don't know which SST novel you're searching for.

[Bogart]

Goofer, A Leap in the Dark is the one! Thanks!

Golf Charlie Charlie, I really enjoyed Flight One. Good ending and an interesting chapter concerning the airline's plan to educate people about supersonic travel.

I'm always looking out for airline novels and love finding obscure titles. I'm really interested in works from outside the U.S., but most online searches turn up little other than Shute and Beaty. It would be great if you all from across the ponds list your country's offerings!

[JEM60]

BOGART 'Airframe' by Michael Crichton, he of Jurassic Park fame ,is quite a good one.

[con-pilot]

(By the way, for those who don't know Nelson's name as an author, I suspect he makes at least as much money as, if not more than, Tom Clancy. He writes a seemingly endless series of very good "airport novels," as they're generally called over here--the kind of fat paperback you buy at the airport to read in flight. He is HUGELY popular.)



Nelson DeMille is an excellent author, one of the best living in my opinion when it comes to fiction. I have all of his books in hardback, most first editions. None signed sadly.

I cannot recommend him highly enough.