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Airframe

By Michael Crichton

(125)

| Paperback | 9780099556312

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Critics

Between Planes

When Casey Singleton, QA (that’s Quality Assurance rep) on the IRT (that’s the Incident Review Team) at Norton Aircraft, gets a message on the beeper to meet in the War Room at 0700 hours BTOYA (that’s Be There Or It’s Your Ass), because TPA Flight 5 ... (read full critics)

nybooks published on Mon, 23 Aug 2010

4 Reviews

Air incident cleverly merged with a thriller

I like this book for a couple of reasons. It has a character with the same surname as me and there arent many of us. Secondly, it explores the aviation world and the way they and the press report on accidents. Aircraft manufacturers insist that they do all they can and more to make travel safe but t ... (continue)

I like this book for a couple of reasons. It has a character with the same surname as me and there arent many of us. Secondly, it explores the aviation world and the way they and the press report on accidents. Aircraft manufacturers insist that they do all they can and more to make travel safe but the press sensationalise accidents. I'm on the inside of the aviation industry and the mix of thriller, intrigue, sensationalism and truth is very well weaved. Michael never fails with his level of research and balance.

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Kieranrawley said on Jun 19, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

The blurb on the back of the book is misleading. Although I found the story to be interesting and suspenseful, it is not about corruption and bad practices or even danger in the air industry (which comes off very well in the story) but about problems in the media (in that they take an incident and c ... (continue)

The blurb on the back of the book is misleading. Although I found the story to be interesting and suspenseful, it is not about corruption and bad practices or even danger in the air industry (which comes off very well in the story) but about problems in the media (in that they take an incident and completely reinterpret, re-framing it using little more than rumour and embellished fact).

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GabeXorn said on Oct 29, 2007 | Add your feedback

Crichton as usual

Airframe is a novel by Michael Crichton about the airline industry. The book is about the happenings in one week at Norton Aircraft, one of the largest (fictional) aircraft companies. It is a company where a lot of importance is given to safety and their latest plane N-22 is their best product. When ... (continue)

Airframe is a novel by Michael Crichton about the airline industry. The book is about the happenings in one week at Norton Aircraft, one of the largest (fictional) aircraft companies. It is a company where a lot of importance is given to safety and their latest plane N-22 is their best product. When they are almost closing a huge deal with China on N-22s something bad happens. One of their planes is subject to a malfunctioning that questions the quality of their aircraft. The puzzle is finding what went wrong and finding the cause of the accident, all within a week. In between all this, the TV people are attracted by this accident and prepare to make pulp out of the company. The novel is the story of Casey, Vice President of QA at Norton and how she finds the cause of the mishap.
For me this novel not only provided thrill while reading it, it also showed me the world of the aircraft industry. I learnt that today's commercial aeroplanes are the most complex vehicles ever built by humans and they are also the most safest. Excessively high standards are set during their manufacture. As usual Crichton is detailed while describing technology in the book. The book introduces you to the work culture in aircraft companies, employees, processes, jargon, aircraft parts, components and all such stuff. It also depicts the low levels today's media industry will steep to, just to show us happening news. All in all, I felt that Airframe is not as good as Crichton's other books, but it is still un-put-downable.

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Ashwin Nanjappa said on Jun 26, 2007 | Add your feedback

I thought it was very good, but at times the details of the airframe served to be more confusing then anything else. I would recommend it to individuals who like mystery and suspense especially if they want something different then a murder mystery.

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SheReads said on Mar 6, 2007 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback