Tom Swift and His Hypersonic SpacePlane

Book excerpt: In the 29th novel of this series, Tom Swift decides to "dust off" and see if he can make an early dream come true. At the age of sixteen he had built a small jet he called his Nuclear Hyperplane. It was anything but either of those things. Now, nearly sixteen years later he believes he might do something to make that dream come true. He sets out to design an aircraft that might travel at five times the speed of sound.Because he is award that he cannot continuously spend without bringing some sales into Swift Enterprises, he plans to build a hypersonic passenger jet capable of getting half way around the world in about three-and-a-half hours. It is an ambitions plan.It comes to the attention of at least two unfriendly entities, both of whom try to ruin his plans; at least one believes that killing the inventor is the way to accomplish this.By taking things in little steps, he inches closer and closer to his dream, but can he manage to do it while remaining safe?