ペーパーバック『Airframe（エアフレーム:機体）』

Michael Crichton（マイケル・クライトン）が1996年に上梓したフィクション（『Airframe』）です。航空機産業の問題に切り込んでいます。20年以上昔の小説ですが一昨年からのボーイング737MAXの事故もあり身近に感じます。色々と飛行機に関する話題が出てきます。飛行機オタクやメカ好きの方にはワクワクする内容です。下記の「飛行機はすごいんだ！」とする部分が印象的でした。また、テスト飛行でテレビ局の女性プロデューサー（Jennifer Malone）が乗り物酔いする場面は笑いました。

“That’s right,” Casey said. “Compared to these aircraft, cars are a joke.”

Richman turned to her, surprised. “A joke?”

“Think about it,” she said. “A Pontiac has five thousand parts, and you
can build one in two shifts. Sixteen hours. That’s nothing. But these
things”-she gestured to the aircraft looming high above them-“are a
completely different animal. The widebody has one million parts and
a span time of seventy-five days. No other manufactured product in
the world has the complexity of a commercial aircraft. Nothing even
comes close. And nothing is built to be as durable. You take a Pontiac
and run it all day every day and see what happens. It’ll fall apart
in a few months. But we design our jets to fly for twenty years of
trouble-free service, and we build them to twice the service life.”

“Forty years?” Richman said, incredulous. “You build them to last
forty years?”

Casey nodded. “We’ve still got lots of N-5s in service around the
world-and we stopped building them in 1946. We’ve got planes that
have accumulated four times their design life-the equivalent of
eighty years of service. Norton planes will do that. Douglas planes
will do that. But no one else’s birds will do that. You understand
what I’m saying?” “Wow,” Richman said, swallowing.