A new superfast space plane that skirts the edge of space, inbound on a two-hour jaunt to Hong Kong, collides with a satellite. Metals groan as if in pain. The aircraft slowly overturns. Suddenly the emergency floor lights extinguish. All manner of objects bounce and sail though the cabin. In the darkness some debris strikes passengers. Screams of injury join shouts of terror. Various tourists claw at their restraints, freed, they fall away into darkness. Bounding travelers kick, and swing their arms; scratching the bodies of other sightseers. Indescribable howls fill the fuselage. Deafening, hysterical shrieks eject from every throat. One, clear, horrified voice rises above the others. "GOD! GOD. OH GOD." The terrified screamer could be male or female, extreme fear reshapes the shouter's larynx. This is the ultimate roller-coaster ride. The grinding metal begins to sound musical like the screech of an electric guitar. The space plane lurches into the vastness of the stellar realm. With fuel exhausted and onboard life-gases spewing from its hull, the space plane drifts and twists through space. The vacationer's eyes bulge as they await catastrophe. Passengers draw lots to determine who will be among those saved, but unlike the Titanic, in "New York to Hong Kong in Two Hours!" there are no deferrals for women and children.

The 'Turtle' and the 'Dreamboat' is the first detailed account of the race for long-distance flight records between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy less than fourteen months after World War II. The flights were risky and unprecedented. Each service intended to demonstrate its offensive capabilities during the dawning nuclear age, a time when America was realigning its military structure and preparing to create a new armed service--the United States Air Force. The first week of October 1946 saw the conclusion of both record-breaking, nonstop flights by the military fliers. The first aircraft, a two-engine U.S. Navy P2V Neptune patrol plane nicknamed the Truculent Turtle, flew more than eleven thousand miles from Perth, Western Australia, to Columbus, Ohio. The Turtle carried four war-honed pilots and a young kangaroo as a passenger. The second plane, a four-engine U.S. Army B-29 Superfortress bomber dubbed the Pacusan Dreamboat, flew nearly ten thousand miles from Honolulu to Cairo via the Arctic. Although presented as a friendly rivalry, the two flights were anything but collegial. These military missions were meant to capture public opinion and establish aviation leadership within the coming Department of Defense. Both audacious flights above oceans, deserts, mountains, and icecaps helped to shape the future of worldwide commercial aviation, greatly reducing the length and costs of international routes. Jim Leeke provides an account of the remarkable and record-breaking flights that forever changed aviation.