"Hurtling Wings" by L. Ron Hubbard

"Hurtling Wings"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multicast Performance
Produced by Galaxy Audio
Approx 2 hours


I've got to tell you, these audio book releases from Galaxy audio are just plain fun. During the mid-20th century L. Ron Hubbard eked out a living by writing stories for the many pulp fiction magazines that were in heavy circulation at the time. He wrote the stories in various genres so he could cover a wide range of the publications and even used aliases/pen names for some of the stories. Some of the genres he wrote in are; Science-Fiction, Westerns, Mystery, Fantasy, and Adventure (the adventure could be further broken down to sea, air and orient adventures.) Galaxy Press began re-releasing these stories and packaging them down to books that cover the various genres. Galaxy Audio in turning these into audio books has gone a huge step further by creating some very entertaining audio drama with each book.

Each book contains one or more stories, and with the audio books these come out to about 2 hours of pure audio pleasure. Using a cast of very talented vocal actors, these stories come to life in full audio glory. The actors not only perform the characters they create the mood and express the action they make you HAVE to listen to the stories. The sound effects are not simply thrown in when the story asks for it but instead layered into the full production so that they fit perfectly in to make the full experience completely engulf the listener.

So with all that in mind I try out another genre in the Hubbard/Galaxy inventory and gave "Hurtling Wings" an air adventure a listen. Soon I was caught up in the action and enjoying the full theatrical spectacle that is this audio book.

Hurtling Wings was originally published in "Adventure" November,1934, and seems at first like a simple story about aircraft racing teams competing in various aerial events. But with Hubbard's stories from the Golden Age nothing is simple. Cal Bradley is a daredevil racer and test pilot and during the acrobatics section of the event loses his plane in what turns out to be sabotage. Speed Kyle's company which builds the best planes around needs a good pilot to show of his planes at this event. This National Air Meet is important because the winner of the meet could get a valuable air mail contract, which could pull Speed's company out of the possibility of financial ruin.

Cal happens to be dating Speed's daughter Georgia, and this means they could be together more, but the sabotage follows Cal as it turns that some of the other businesses competing are not very honest. During the various flying contests Cal battles sabotaged planes to keep them in the air and battles the saboteurs to keep everyone around him safe. The excitement of this story will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time and not until everyone is safe and back on the ground can you relax.

Check out this latest release from Galaxy Audio for some exciting air adventures from the Golden Age of stories.