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 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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

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 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. ( )

I read this one in the 1960s as a Readers' Digest Condensed Book. Just as gripping today. ( )