The Flight of the Phoenix

A plane flying oil workers and equipment is beset by a sandstorm, sand “the color of sickness.” Two die and another is injured in the crash landing. With little food or water, the rest wait to die in the North African sun until a passenger who is an aircraft designer focuses on an idea to create a new, smaller plane from the wreckage. They work for three weeks in the heat, growing weaker each day. His single-minded pursuit sets up a clash with the pilot, who doesn’t believe it will fly and feels intense guilt for the lives already lost. When it turns out the designer specializes in model aircraft, all appears to be lost. But this is a story of survival, and a good one at that.

Originally published in 1964, The Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor is a novel about the crash of a transport aircraft in the Libyan Desert and the survivor’s attempt to save themselves. I am a fan of the 1965 film starring James Stewart and Richard Attenborough but I do think the book expanded the story and filled out the character’s motivations in a more complete way.

The author’s descriptions of the intense heat by day and freezing cold at night, along with the sheer sense of isolation and the desperate countdown as their water supply dwindles is vivid and realistic. As the men come to the realization that rescue isn’t coming and their only hope is to save themselves, one man declares that he can see how they could show more salvage a workable plane from the wreckage.

Flight of the Phoenix was a well done adventure story that highlighted the physical hardships that the survivors endured. The characters were interesting and the author added some surprising twists along the way that helped to offset the over abundance of technical details. I found this book to be a well written, interesting and intense survival story. show less

My dearly departed grandfathers favourite book of all time.

It follows a place crashing in the desert and the crews attempts to build their way out. An almost certain early inspiration for Andy Weirs The Martian, phoenix is a scientific and mathematical journey through survival.

We go way beyond water rations here to the point of how much can be produced each night using condensation, how many people that have, who is working, efficiency of working at day vs at night. The same with food and other supplies and all the while knowing at any moment something could happen, like a weather change, that completely changes the equation. Everything hinges on water production.

We also have massive internal fighting within the group. The one man who show more is seemingly able to think his way out of the situation is an asshole, and whether he is a natural born ass or someone who is behaving a certain way because of how he is perceived, there are moments you feel like strangling him for being so petty and prideful when a number of lives are on the line. His moment of realisation is an incredible point in the book and I wont ruin it for you if you have not read it.

The Dennis Quid movie did a half decent job at capturing the relationships between the characters but never quite reached the right level of desperation. In the book you feel that lives re hanging on a capful of water as they constantly find themselves swinging between working as a team or dying as individuals.

If you liked The Martian I would recommend this in the same way that if you told me you liked the Hunger Games I'd say go read Battle Royale. show less

A cargo plane with a few oil drillers and military folks on board goes into a sandstorm and ends up crash landing in the middle of the desert (central Libya). What proceeds is a harrowing tale of how the survivors managed to fly out of the desert. I read it in just a little over a day - having to turn the next page to see if they could survive another day of heat, little water, only dates to eat, rivalries and stubbornness.

There was a lot of technical jargon, some of it that I didn't really follow - but I would've been helped if I had noticed the last page of the book earlier, which had a diagram of what they were trying to create!

Some of the characters were more well described than others and you didn't always understand what drove show more certain characters to do what they did.

In the end though, I enjoyed this book that my Dad passed on to me several years ago. show less

I picked this up from the library after seeing the 1965 film with Jimmy Stewart, to see how the adaptation compared with the book. It was a good film and the book was a similarly solid work. Lots of fascinating geeky technical details related to aircraft, yet still a fairly quick read. Most of the characters are well defined or at least have several easily discernable characteristics, although there are a few, such as Loomis, who don't feel very fleshed out. Trevor does better in his evocation of the brutal heat of the Sahara and description of the gradual deterioration of men under extreme physical and mental stress, as well as the aforementioned technical details. Worth a read if you liked the movie (either one) or if you're show more interested in aviation or survival stories. show less

Very compelling -- I wanted to keep reading to the very end even though I basically knew the ending. The main thing I was concerned about was whether or not the monkey made it. He did.

A couple of the characters weren't very well defined and I kept mixing them up. Very much story-driven rather than character-driven with the possible exception of the pilot, co-pilot and plane designer. Overall, a very good read.

the original novel was spare and compelling. the movie, a very good piece of escapism. The James Stewart version of course, not the later one where things get blown up far too often.