The Girl Aviators and the Phantom Airship

The Girl Aviators #1

by Margaret Burnham

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge.

Genres: Fiction, Aviation

283 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1911

Reviews

[Rex Libris · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a book about girl aviators, the big crowning achievement is still done by the brother, not the sister, so the poor gal gets short shrift in a book supposedly about female aviators.

In the story, brother and sister are orphans who are about to lose the farm to the rival rich kid's family's bank. The only way they can make enough money to save the farm is to enter the air race. When the baddies kidnap the brother, the sister has to fly the plane to find him. She does, but the boy flies the race to win the money.

[Jennifer Booth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not bad

I found the book an easy read for the huddle and bustle of the Christmas holiday season. I liked it.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pleasant read and an interesting window into the very early aviation craze - only 7 years after the Wright brothers' historic first flight. That it should feature a teenaged girl makes it remarkable. There are several instances in the story where the author includes outright comments on the unfairness of the way girls and women are treated, but this is contradicted in subtle ways, which is why this gets 4 stars and not 5: the Prescott teens' aunt is never given a first name - she is simply Miss Prescott throughout; in spite of showing Peggy as a budding suffragette, who protests that women and girls should be given the same opportunities and prize money as men and boys in the air races, the author falls back on "feminine" stereotypes in making Peggy overly sentimental, "naturally" adept at nursing skills, too quick to allow her brother to take the credit for the things she'd avtually done, and, disappointingly, never speaking out against the cancellation of the girls' air race at the major air event. Jess, Peggy's friend, is more consistently independent-minded, in spite of the pains the author goes to, to try to paint Peggy as the true "new" girl. I can't fully reconcile what seem to be contradictory elements to Peggy's character. I can't quite decide if the author includes the "patriarchally-defined" feminine characteristics as a commentary on the socially expected roles women should adopt, or if these characteristics are included because the author subscribes to them. There are three more books to the series, so it will be interesting to see how Peggy develops. I find it interesting that L. Frank Baum's Orissa Kane, the teen girl aviator in Baum's Flying Girl series (1911-1912, same time as the Burnham Girl Aviator series), is a much more independent, confident, and accomplished young girl, whose competence and intelligence are accepted and respected by her brother. There is some question as to who Margaret Burnham actually was, and whether this was a pseudonym - for a male or female author? - but if it was a female author, then, I find it even more intriguing that it was the male author - Baum, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne - who creates girl characters with more consistent feminist qualities than several of the female authors writing at the same time.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun romp! The Girl Aviators and the Phantom Airship would make a fabulous and hilarious Jr High (Middle School) play. There are plenty of parts and they are good ones: a surly yet competent blacksmith, a pair of long lost brothers (a hermit and a Texas Millionaire), an elderly doctor, a woman of ill repute who repents and is redeemed, stolen jewels, a suspicious butler, a friend who whiles away lonely hours gabbing with other wireless operators etc etc. It is perhaps a little low on female parts (especially considering the title), but that could be fixed with only minor adjustments. The title is an unfortunate spoiler, but not for the central Missing Jewels mystery.

There are plot holes you could drive a truck through (just how many people can ride in that 'plane anyway?), but that just seemed to add to the fun.

I downloaded the rest of the series from Project Gutenberg. What a pity there are only five.

-=-=-

Published in 1911, this is in the same vein as Trixie Belden or Nancy Drew. It's surprisingly feminist for the era. (Or maybe I don't know that era well enough.) As the title implies, there are Girls flying Planes. They also fix planes and show a lot of pluck. The book is full of archetypal characters. When a tall angular withered man in black shows up at the door, I thought of Snidely Whiplash, and sure enough we soon learn that he's about to foreclose on the property. His son later shows up in black leather from head to toe, and reaches for his motorcycle. This is a fun book. I stumbled on it while looking for something else on Project Gutenberg.

[Jaylia3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrills! Chills! Spills! And hooray for Project Gutenberg! Thanks to their free downloads I was able to use my Android phone to read this first book in the AVIATOR GIRLS series, which was published way back in the early 1900s. My sister stumbled across the title when she was helping me find the novel CECELIA by Fanny Burney, a book that gave Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE its name. The AVIATOR GIRLS stars two cheerful, capable, intrepid brother/sister pairs who make and fly their own airplanes, and because it features independent girls who solve mysteries it reads like it could have been an inspiration for NANCY DREW or TRIXIE BELDEN. Peggy and Roy live with their aunt and are fixing up the Golden Butterfly, a plane they hope will win them the $5,000 they need to pay off their aunt’s mortgage so they won’t lose their home. They are helped by their wealthier friends, siblings Jess and Jimsy, who also supply one of the books mysteries—someone stole their mother’s jewels while Jess and Roy were knocked out after a suspicious car accident! Other characters include a lonely hermit with a sad secret, a working girl with a good heart, a rich entrepreneur with a long lost brother, and of course a jealous villain with the worst of motives.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightful story about a teenage brother and sister who live with their soon-to-be-foreclosed-on aunt. But if the airplane they've built and learned to pilot can win an upcoming contest, they'll be able to pay off the mortgage and save the day. First, though, they have to deal with an unscrupulous competitor and the mysterious disappearance of their best friends' mother's jewels. The Girl Aviators and the Phantom Airship reads like vintage Nancy Drew and is also an entertaining window on American life a hundred years ago (if I'm not mistaken, the book was first published in 1911). My only disappointment is that there were no dirigibles, phantom or otherwise--one of the things I learned from reading this is that in the 1910s, "airship" could just as easily refer to an airplane.

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this at the flea market a few weeks ago for a mere $1. It was a rather cute young adult novel, nothing special to write home about, except that it was written in 1911, just eight years after the Wright brothers made the first successful airplane flight. So in its way, the book is a trailblazer; a pack of kids build their own airplane and fly it around, in the process solving crimes and using all sorts of adorable pre-War slang. Pretty cool for a book based on brand-new technology.

[David]

A bit let down by this one. The contemporaneous Edith Van Dyne "Girl Flyer" series is far superior, with a more nuanced portrayal of character motivations and less outlandish plot contrivances. This is a series of moustache-twirling coincidences in which the airplane could become a speedboat without too many changes to the text.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast, fun read, but the "girl aviators" seemed to play a smaller part in it than their male counterparts. Okay if you like those early flying stories crossed with Enid Blyton, but otherwise not something most people will like.

[sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read. This book was full of mystery and adventure, but I felt that there were so many different things going on in the story that it was hard to understand. The title is also very confusing, as it's not much only about the "girl aviators" in the story but the male characters also take a very big part. There also aren't any lighter-than-aircrafts in the story. Peggy, the Girl Aviator of the story, might have been viewed as a strong female character, standing up for women, back when this was written. However, it doesn't seem much of the case today.