The Flight of the Phoenix

They are twelve men who shouldn't be alive. They have survived the sudden blinding sandstorm that crippled their air freighter; survived a desperate crash landing in the Sahara of Central Libya; survived to face the slow, dry, agonizing death of the desert, for no rescue plans will seek their unscheduled flight.

Twelve men with one hope: to build a new plane from the wreckage of their Skytruck and make a flight out of hell, two hundred miles to the nearest oasis.

Only one man could build such a plane: Stringer, the brilliant and obsessed engineer. Only one man could fly it: Towns, the arrogant and tormented pilot. Both had been aboard the Skytruck, but both are mortal enemies whose consuming hatred for each other is a danger greater than the desert itself.

This tale is so riveting it has inspired two major motion pictures--the unforgettable 1965 film starring Jimmy Stewart and the 2004 film starring Dennis Quaid.