Tom Swift and His Airship, or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud, is Volume 3 in the original Tom Swift

Tom Swift

Tom Swift is the name of the central character in five series of books, first appearing in 1910, totaling over 100 volumes, of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention and technology. The character was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of...

 novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap

Grosset & Dunlap

Grosset & Dunlap is a United States book publisher founded in 1898.The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of the British publishing conglomerate, Pearson PLC through its American subsidiary Penguin Group....

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Plot summary

In Tom Swift and His Airship, Tom Swift has finished his latest invention: the Red Cloud, a fast and innovative airship. Tom is anxious for a cross-country trial, but just before he and his friends take off, the Shopton bank is robbed. No sooner is Tom in the air than he is blamed for the robbery. Suddenly, he's a wanted fugitive but doesn't know why until he's half-way across the country. With no safe harbor or friend on the land below, Tom must race back to Shopton to clear his name before he's shot out of the sky.

Inventions & innovation

• Tom Swift, and his friend (John Sharp - aeronaut extraordinaire), designed and built the Red Cloud: an airship that was half blimp
  Blimp
  A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag...
  
  /dirigible and half airplane. In fact, it had two wings (like the World War I biplane
  Biplane
  A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
  
  s) extending out from a spacious gondola
  Gondola (disambiguation)
  A gondola is a traditional Venetian rowing boat, best known today for transporting tourists.Gondola may also refer to:-Fixed structures:...
  
   which sat beneath the rather voluminous gas-filled balloon. It was fast, achieving over 80 mph if pressed, and could stay in the air for two weeks at a time, if Tom wanted. Perhaps the most fantastic element of the craft was the gondola, which was luxuriously appointed with multiple rooms; e.g., a kitchen, an engine room, and a first-rate observation room from which Tom would steer the ship, while looking out the surrounding windows.
• Barton Swift, Tom's father, is nearing completion of a submarine
  Submarine
  A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
  
  design that promises to be the most advanced in the world.