Airframe
by Michael Crichton

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Book Reviews of Airframe

Book Review: bleeds energy!
Summary: 1 Stars

The titular fuselage belongs to the N-22, an airliner designed by Norton Aerospace, one of those bland and vague corporate entities typical to Michael Crichton novels. N-22 jets are known for their safety, especially in America - though this might have more to do with the fact that much of the N-22's competition is European. Aero-chauvinism vanishes when a US-bound N-22 encounters inexplicably severe turbulence, and a conspiracy of media, lawyers and assorted, uncredited "experts" descend on Norton like vultures. "Airframe" could have been a dramatic vehicle to explore such issues as corporate accountability, gov't regulation of industry, products liability, and the media, but Crichton never gets anywhere near that destination. The Norton Aero experts are his heroes, protecting the corporate world from the scum of special interests. Crichton saddles them without a shred of self-doubt in the quality of their product, thus removing what would have been a rich source of dramatic and moral tension. The enemy (bottom-feeding lawyers, self-proclaimed experts and the amoral media types that give the other two their voice) are not only undeniably amoral and dim, but ugly. We almost see the warts.

Having created a force with no chance of reader sympathy, Crichton seems to rail against media manipulation of commerical flight, but it all sounds hollow. Much is made of the DC-10 which was grounded temporarily following a string of disasters in 1979. Though the DC-10 was eventually cleared to fly, Crichton insists that McDonnell never sold another. I'm suspicious because a) living near an airport, I used to see plenty of DC-10's until recently when they were phased out - nearly two decades after the grounding and about the same time as the DC-10's competitor, the L-1011; b) DC-10's market misfortunes (if they existed) would have occurred when airline deregulation created dozens of new airlines flying short routes with small planes. The small 737, once a niche aircraft, is now commercial aviation's most popular jet, typifying market erosion for all big planes. Figures show the DC-10, for its perceived faults, outsold its competition, the L-1011; and c) if the DC-10's misfortunes resulted from public mistrust in its construction or design, lack of confidence should have spread to all McDonnel planes. Instead, McDonnell continued selling planes and did well enough with smaller planes like the MD-80 to try their hand at a next-generation airliner, the MD-11. Crichton mentions the DC-10 like a mantra, so pat and without a sound of dissent, it's almost impossible to take at face value.

Like a badly damaged jetfighter, "Airframe" bleeds energy quickly once its apparent that the author has less interest in aviation than the media's sway over America. In fact, the book is so divorced from its high-flying mascot, that it could have been written about any product - like toys or appliances. In that respect, "Airframe' recalls the little-seen "Missile Lords" (Sutton, 1963), a novel about the high-stakes world of ICBM's, and the companies that build them. So focused on the corporate and marketing minds behind the fictitious ICBM, that the missile itself and its explosive power are never fully realized and the company might as well have been trying to sell the air force some mopeds. "Aiframe" could also have been written about Mopeds until media attention over TWA 800 required adding some chapters and judiciously use find/replace to swap mopeds for airliners. Though Crichton seems to fight this with some thin prose praising the autonomy of the plane makers, it's thin. This is especially because "Airframe"'s heroes are almost as divorced from aviation as the N-22's enemies. Though extolling the pilots, none of the book's main charachters are airline pilots, and the band of N-22 partisans who know anything about airplanes exist only to cry fowl at the media and demonstrate the stupidity of those without the author's sense of flight. This is not Craig Thomas' "A Different War", where the hero redeems the suspected airliner by flying it. The flight in one simple chapter of that book is enough to banish the mopeds. Crichton's attentions on airliners, in contrast, is no different from that of the dim laymen he populates his books with - as vehicles.

To remind readers - and perhaps himself - that his book is about something expensive and exotic, but beyond his grasp to put in its element, Crichton tosses in his usual suspects - corporate intrigue: darker forces are at work here, as evidenced here by Bob Richman, the plucky heroine's unwanted intern. Richman is dead-meat the minute (or page) he appears. His blue-chip upbringing, top-flight education, high-priced (and foreign! ) car and his youth are enough to raise warning flags. At times, I thought Crichton was on the verge of a surprise that would not only redeem the sleazy ivy-leaguer but confound his readers as well, primed for the brat's fall. Alas, "Airframe" remains blatantly obvious (the brat's name is the perfect example - I guess "Richboy" would have been too obvious), as averse to turbulence as a well designed airliner. Alas again that Crichton, while heaping scorn on the media fails to realize that his corporate cloak&dagger undermines his bloated polemic - the media's hatchet job would never have progressed without help from Norton's inside enemies. But that patent flaw in Crichton's argument probably made sense when the book was about mopeds. If you've got to read Crichton, read the first Jurassic, the Andromeda Strain or Sphere. If you've got to read about flying, pick up Coonts or Craig Thomas. Keep this airframe grounded.

Summary of Airframe

Action & Adventure Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure
• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers
• Suspense