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Based on the true story of the first round-the-world commercial flight, Escape of the Pacific Clipper is driven by war. The real “California Clipper” was a Boeing 314 Flying Boat, ahead of its time in design. Owned by Pan Am Airways, the Clipper is trapped in Auckland, New Zealand by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Given orders to return to New York, the crew under Captain Robert Ford proceeded to fly nearly 32,000 miles across Asia, Africa, and South America. They dodged a Japanese submarine, dealt with an engine failure, flew on commercial gasoline, and avoided political entanglements, before making it home. Ford’s account was of a rough, uncomfortable ride. However, Flynn’s fanciful adventure reads straight out of a 1940’s movie. A tough, but dashing test pilot, a topnotch crew and a beautiful Naval intelligence officer make for the heroes. Along the way, they meet strange characters, sleazy politicians, and an Arabian royal who helps the Clipper on its way.
Ford’s deadly enemy is the obsessed Japanese Commodore Tanaka. His country has no long-range bombers, and the plan is to capture the Clipper and copy her to bomb the US. After commandos fail to hijack the plane, Tanaka stages his own cross-continental flight to intercept and destroy the Clipper. Flynn’s tale makes for an exciting one, bogged down by too much information. Background and history distract the reader from the story. There is good attention to detail in some respects, but there are repetitive comments made by many characters. Meanwhile, Tanaka and his cohorts are stereotypical, at times speaking with the same western slang of their enemies. Point of view shifts without separation can be jarring. The story is good, but might be better told with less verbiage.