The flying buccaneer

"The flying buccaneer" by Jack Binns is a novel written in the early 20th century. It’s an aviation adventure set in a near‑future world of transoceanic airships, where an audacious aerial pirate terrorizes the Pacific and forces Washington to mount a vast pursuit. The story centers on duty‑bound flyer Kenneth Fitzgerald and socialite Mary Ingleton, who becomes the pirate’s captive, while a vanished ace engineer’s shadow looms over the crimes. The opening of the novel races from a newspaper shock—an airship shot down mid‑ocean—into crisis rooms in Washington, where officials scramble to respond as another liner, the Wilbur Wright, departs San Francisco with Mary and her mother aboard. Amid scenes of grand airports and sky travel, Mary’s inner turmoil over a rejected suitor, Joe Levanter, is revealed, followed by a clandestine offer that tempts the shattered aviator toward outlawry. At sea, Fitzgerald awkwardly proposes to Mary just before a masked flying boat cripples the Wilbur Wright, forces an evacuation, demands Mary specifically, abducts her, and sinks the ship; rescue planes from Pearl Harbor arrive too late to stop it. The government then builds a vast island‑to‑island patrol and radio triangulation net; weeks later, Honolulu’s direction finders catch the pirate’s signals, Fitzgerald’s squadron rushes from Wake Island, and after a brief, outclassed engagement the pirate escapes but brazenly challenges them to a set‑piece battle the next day—prompting Fitzgerald, torn between duty and love, to fly out again as operators across the Pacific bend over their dials.

The flying buccaneer, by Jack Binns. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78892.