It seems that no matter how far out from a populated area an airport is built, it is a fact that people will build and buy homes nearby and complain about the noise. It has finally hit the point where something must be done to make aircraft quieter than ever. The problem Tom Swift must face is that everything possible has been tried and no new progress has been made. Try as he might, Tom just can't do much to reduce the noise coming out the back of a typical jet engine. Then it hits him: he must create an entirely new engine, one that functions on a different level than anything else to date.

The 15th novel in the New TOM SWIFT Invention Adventures. Just two years ago Tom Swift and his best friend, Bud Barclay, journeyed through a wormhole and nearly lost their lives investigating a black hole. After returning Tom sent an unmanned probe back there to keep an eye on things. The time has come to replace it. But, when he does the first videos sent back reveal something so startling that Tom isn't certain what to believe. The probe shows him something Tom knows had to be in the past. What might it mean? The first thought he has is some sort of time fluctuation has occurred. He is hesitant to refer to it as "time travel." But, what if that is exactly what it is? Is it something that can be replicated and used on Earth. Or, can the source of the phenomena be taken from its location back to Earth? Tom can only imagine the possibilities and sets out testing in until a personal tragedy forces him to try something radical.

In his 17th adventure, Tom finds himself battling something his scientific knowledge has not prepared him for: personal tragedy! Having conquered several of sci-fi's most difficult problems, he is faced with a crisis that will test his abilities nearly to the breaking point. An incredibly close person is stricken with an inoperable tumor inside his head that will kill him in months, or an operation might do it sooner. At the very least, standard medical procedures would leave him with brain damage. When Doc Simpson proposes an impossible task, Tom finds that he must rally if there is anything to do to save the man. But Doc himself refuses to consider the treatment Tom has in mind when he finds what the inventor proposes is more like a living video game that serious surgery. Is possible to convince him to let Tom-an unskilled surgeon at the very best-perform the life-saving procedure? And, can Tom rally his emotional and physical strength long enough to make the operation a success?

The 18th book of the series. Like many people, Tom Swift-and his father, Damon-have dreamed of the days when the personal jet backpacks we've heard about since the 1940s become reality. When a movie director from Hollywood comes to Tom to create the real thing-he demands reality in his science fiction films with special effects-it intrigues the young inventor enough to see what he might create. It's a lot harder than it first appears! He must convince the director that his plans to have a 1940's period piece with leather jackets and bullet-nosed SCUBA tank-shaped rockets has to be updated to match what he believes might be deliverable as a real device. The suit is hijacked by the stuntman and ends up shooting him into space making necessary a search and rescue mission. In the end, it is up to Bud Barclay to save the day and fly the suit for the film. But, a sudden attack might be sending him on a collision course with death. Can Tom rescue his best friend and save the movie?

In the 20th adventure of this new series, Tom Swift finds a pleasant day test sailing a new yacht is turning into an attack from the sky. Out of nowhere a lightning bolt strikes his boat and sucks all power from everywhere. Not a freak incident, it seems to be more of a warning of things to come when a large power generating station along the East Coast is attacked next, with the same loss of electricity as if it had been siphoned back into the sky. This time, there is a great deal of damage and a near death. More and more power stations are targeted and now Tom must try to find out several vital things: Who is attacking? Why are they invisible and how do they manage that? What is their purpose in zig-zagging up and down the country hitting station after station? Not only is he broadsided by these attacks, he also finds out there is another Tom Swift out there; or rather a Tommy Swift. Together they work to uncover the evil attackers Bud Barclay has dubbed the Electricity Vampires.

In the twenty-first novel in this new series, Tom has defeated the Electricity Vampires and now wants something a bit less diabolical to take up his time. A new X-Prize is announced that intrigues him: fly a solar-powered aircraft, non-stop, around the globe in just 36 hours! That sort of speed will require an electrical powered jet, and that will burn up a lot of electricity. So, how can he manage to make what he needs by day... and still have enough to run at full speed at night? Might his recently discovered cousin in England, Thomasina Swift, be of some assistance? After all, she and her partner, Betty, have come up with an incredible solar cloth! Just as long as nothing ""exotic"" is used like one of Tom's Power Pods. Complicating things is a mysterious woman, and a deadly opponent, seemingly out to keep Tom from winning or perhaps from ever getting back home alive.