Bill Saeton is intent on building a revolutionary new engine that will power a fleet of air freighters. Neil Fraser is a hired gun who steals planes for a living, and he needs a place to hide out. Saeton offers him shelter, Fraser is able to help with making the engine and testing the airplane. Saeton’s goal is to get onto the Berlin Airlift and use it to showcase his invention… that might not actually be his… and that he will stop at nothing to complete.

I liked this concept. The Berlin Airlift is not something I’ve read much about, and the whole industrial-espionage angle added a layer of interest. The book did take me a little bit to get into, and there were a couple of places where the characterization of the women made me roll my eyes, but overall I found this a pretty solid thriller with lots of nerdy airplane details, which is really what I came for! ( )

Innes was a British author who wrote 35 novels as well as some non fiction and children's books between 1937-96. Air Bridge is his fifteenth adventure novel and he was well into the swing of producing a book every year during this period. Typically he would spend six months research and then six months writing. For Air Bridge he hitched a lift with the RAF into blockaded Berlin at the height of the airlift.

Neil Fraser tells his story in the first person. He had been a pilot during the second world war and now down on his luck was on the run from the police hiding under a false identity. He stumbles onto a deserted airfield with the vague idea of stealing an aeroplane. He escapes the authorities but is knocked unconscious by Bill Seaton, who blackmails him into helping him and his colleague rebuild engines for a plane that they hope will make them a fortune shuttling goods into Berlin at the start of the airlift in June 1948. The new engines are being built to a new fuel saving specification that Seaton may have stolen during the war and it is a race against time to get them completed. Lack of finance and the possibility of a German family stealing back the blueprint causes Seaton to take reckless and ruthless action to achieve his ends. Fraser and the talented engineer Tubby Carter find themselves driven by Seaton's ambition and the second half of the novel moves into an adventure in blockaded Berlin where crash landings, stolen airplanes and murder set the three men against each other.

Innes' reputation for diligent research before writing his novels certainly pays off with Air Bridge. The three main scenarios: building and testing the new engines, woking conditions of the airlift and the zones of the blockaded city of Berlin all feel authentic. Innes is also very good at setting the scene with taught descriptions of weather, landscapes and places and his pacing of the adventure story builds to a good climax. His characters are not heroic although they sometimes act heroically, they are men and women who struggle to get, or even to know what they want. Typically in this novel strong motivated characters take advantage of their abilities to influence the decisions of their colleagues. Seaton, Fraser and Carter all come across as believable; taking action thrust on them through limitations in choice: soul searching is not the order of the day, but conscience and behavioural patterns certainly are. The two main female characters Diana and Else are not to well drawn and their attitudes and ambitions seem more typical of what one expects them to be in the 1950's although both have moments when they fight against their situation. Tubby Carter the well liked, friendly, more morally adept person is of course the one who suffers most. The plot is well worked and there are surprises along the way and when the action needs picking up Innes is able to provide atmosphere and tension. Innes dialogue can appear a bit stilted at times reflecting what people might say in the films of the period rather than in real life situations.

I think it was the atmosphere of deserted airfields, desolate countryside and the shattered city of Berlin along with the striving to make something material after the war years that made this post war adventure novel such a good read. I also learnt something about a period in history that was new to me. 1951 is the year I have chosen to absorb as much of its literature as I can and I also want to dip into the more popular novels of the period and this was a good start. I don't think I am going to embark on reading all 35 of Innes adventure novels, but would not hesitate to pick up another one if I was in the mood for a good well told story book. 3.5 stars ( )

Nice, imaginative adventure story that is a product of the immediate postwar years. Innes writes in a punchy style, but he is no Hemingway. Nonetheless, his story has a certain drive to it. And his shift in settings, from an abandoned American airstrip in England to Germany and the Berlin Airlift makes for almost two novels. The first half, in England, is a sort of set melodrama. The second half is pure espionage and action. Innes seems to know his aircraft, except for the fact that his beloved Avro Tudor apparently was a bit of a dud, far behind the US in advanced aeronautics. But that doesn't matter. Not only a good adventure, by the way, but some fairly interesting characters. The protagonist, Neil Fraser, is pretty well fleshed out, as is the villain of the piece, Saeton. ( )

The story of an enterprise begun in a hangar on a deserted airfield in Wiltshire. The three men behind it are ex-RAF flyers. Against the background of a post-war blockade of Berlin, it tells of their attempts to get their machine on to the Airlift in time.
Neil Fraser, former WW II hero, is a top notch mercenary pilot. But now he is on the run, and in need of a plane. Bill Saeton has risen from the flames of war with the dream of an air freight fleet.
Fraser needs a plane. Saeton needs Fraser. One would murder his best friend to get what he wants, but this is where the other draws the line.
Former WW2 pilot and aircraft engineer Neil Fraser has found it difficult to adjust to civilian life, and has been reduced to stealing planes and flying them overseas to make a living. On the run in England, Fraser stumbles across Saeton at a deserted former RAF airfield, and Saeton offers to keep him hidden from the authorities in exchange for Fraser building a new aircraft engine. The aim is to install the engine on an aircraft bound for the Berlin Airlift, with a view to showing off in the most public fashion the engine's superior performance and economy. But the plans for this new engine have allegedly been stolen from the Germans, and Saeton will stop at nothing to prevent this becoming public knowledge. Seaton's increasingly ruthless drive to both complete the engine and keep the secret result in his transformation from a flawed protagonist at the beginning of the story to a genuine villain at the end, and Fraser's attempts to escape the tightening net Saeton draws around him forms the centrepiece of the novel. Innes does an outstanding job of charting this battle of wills; Saeton's enthusiasm is infectious despite his maniacal obsession, and Fraser's criminal past means he has nowhere to turn when Saeton goes over the edge.

BERLIJN, 1948. De Koude Oorlog woedt in alle hevigheid. Een enorme luchtbrug moet de door de Sovjet-Unie geïsoleerde stad Berlijn voorzien van voedsel en brandstof. De stad lijdt, maar weigert het op te geven.
Neil Fraser, ex-piloot, op de vlucht voor de politie, wordt geronseld door de geniale ontwerper Bill Seaton, die een revolutionaire vliegtuigmotor heeft ontworpen.
Nadat zijn eigen toestel bij een noodlanding wordt vernield, besluit Seaton een vliegtuig te stelen - uit de overvolle luchtcorridors naar Berlijn. Het duurt niet lang voor Fraser beseft dat hij te maken heeft met een man die voor niets terugdeinst om zijn doel te bereiken.
Als hij besluit in te grijpen, beraamt Seaton al plannen om hem eens en voor altijd nit de weg te ruimen...