Flight 714 for Sydney

Summary

On the way to Sydney for an astronautics convention , Tintin , his snowy dog , Captain Haddock and Professor Tournesol find, during a stop over at Kemayoran airport in Jakarta , Szut , an Estonian pilot they met in Coke in Stock . He introduces his boss Laszlo Carreidas , a billionaire aircraft builder (but also with interests in other sectors: oil, electronics, cola, etc.), who goes to Sydney like them. He offers to bring them aboard his brand new business jet, the Carreidas 160. During the flight, while Captain Haddock and Carreidas are fighting a naval combat game during which the billionaire cheats shamelessly, the plane is hijacked by armed men, infiltrated into the billionaire’s entourage: Spalding , the secretary of Carreidas; Paolo Colombani , co-pilot of Szut and Hans Boehm , radio. These forced the plane to land on the volcanic island (imaginary) of Pulau-Pulau Bompa , frequented by revolutionaries sondonesian who claim the independence of their country.

Carreidas is expected by Rastapopoulos (who pretended to be dead at the end of Coke in stock ) and Allan Thompson , his right arm. Rastapopoulos wants access to the Swiss account of the very wealthy industry, and does not hesitate to use a ” serum of truth ” administered by Dr. Krollspell . The heroes managed to escape, however, and to release Carreidas, Dr. Krollspell joined them after learning that Rastapopoulos planned to suppress him. They then take refuge in an underground temple where they meet Mik Ezdanitoff , an “initiate”, who teaches them the true nature of the temple: a place visited by the extraterrestrialsfor millennia. Rastapopoulos, wanting to force the entrance of the temple with a powerful explosive, causes the eruption of the volcano .

Finally, all are saved by a ” flying saucer “. But Tintin and his companions are obliterated by their memories never to reveal the existence of the extraterrestrials and they are deposited on the inflatable boat of Carreidas 160, off the island. Rastapopoulos, Allan and their accomplices, who were then on the boat, are taken by Ezdanitoff to a secret location – all except Dr. Krollspell, who is found completely amnesiac in India. Snowy is the only character to have kept all his memories. Fatalist, he said to himself, “Ah! if I could tell everything I saw … But you would not believe me. ” The last vignette of the album shows Tintin and his companions boarding flight 714 (which they should have taken at the beginning of the album) to go to Sydney.

The Carreidas 160 

The Carreidas 160 is a tri – jet business jet for four crewmen and ten passengers. At 12,000 meters, its speed is Mach 2. Its turbo -jet engines Rolls-Royce Turbomeca total 8 400 pounds of thrust ¹ . Its wing is variable geometry ² .

At the request of Hergé Roger Leloup , at the time collaborator Studios Hergé and future creator of the character of Yoko Tsuno , designs the device. His first projects are inspired by American jets Learjet , Jetstar and Gulfstream . The visit of a “specialist” of aviation who claimed that the future rested on the variable geometry of the wings influenced Hergé who suggests to Leloup to insert this solution in his project ^{[ref. to be confirmed] 3} . The variable-geometry wing of the Carreidas 160 presents the same solution for flying at Mach 2 as the Mirage G ^4, which makes its first flight in 1966.

A drawing by Roger Leloup of the Carreidas 160 in exploded view was published in the journal Tintin in 1967 ^5 , 3 .

In the album, the device is present in almost one-third of the boards.

Around the album

Hergé strives to ridicule the characters of the wicked, Rastapopoulos and Allan, who appear, one as a grotesque and immature being, the other as a little awake underling. He states on this subject: “In the course of the story, I realized that in the end Rastapopoulos and Allan were only poor types. Yes, I discovered that after dressing Rastapopoulos as a luxury cowboy: he appeared to me so grotesque, accoutred in this way, that he stopped imposing on me! The bad guys have been demystified: in the end, they are mostly ridiculous, pitiful. (…) Moreover, thus deboulonnés, my frightful ones seem to me a little more sympathetic: they are pirates, but poor pirates ” ⁶ .

The “Flight 714 for Sydney” title plays no role in the action: it is the reference of the flight that Tintin, Haddock and Sunflower should have taken at the beginning of the story (but did not take by Following the meeting with Carreidas), and will take once the finished book, to go to the aeronautics convention planned at the beginning.

Despite many requests from his admirers, Hergé has long refused to represent one of them in a Tintin adventure. Flight 714 for Sydney is an exception to this rule. Indeed, Hergé, touched by a letter from a reader named Jean Tauré, has accepted to represent him in the features of the journalist who interrogates Tintin and his companions at the end of the album ⁷ .

To compose the character of Lazlo Carreidas, Hergé has freely inspired Marcel Dassault . In addition to the relationship with planes, the character has in common with his model a look that does not divulge at first glance its nature as a pillar of the business world ^8 , 9 .

Mik Ezdanitoff, from the magazine Comète , is inspired by Jacques Bergier , from Planète magazine . Hergé said about him “I like to confuse, Ezdanitoff is also confusing … Jacques Bergier was delighted to be thus sketched in the role of the insider : he is now in a comic strip! The astonishing Bergier … ” ¹⁰ .

The presence of an extraterrestrial temple on the island where Tintin is a prisoner may be reminiscent of the theory of ancient astronauts . Hergé was inspired by a photo of an Olmec colossal headthat is on the cover of a book of Robert Charroux to figure cosmonaut his head in the underground temple ¹¹ .

This album marks the last confrontation between Tintin and Rastapopoulos, at least in the official series. Indeed, Hergé had planned to return him, under the features of the false mage Endaddine Akkas, in the unfinished album Tintin and Alph-Art . In addition, Tintin confronts him again in the Tintin cartoon and Shark Lake .

With Tintin in Tibet , it is the only album where Dupond and Dupont do not appear since their introduction in The Cigars of the Pharaoh .

With Objectif Lune , One walked on the Moon , The Sunflower Affair and The Mysterious Star , Flight 714 for Sydney is one of Tintin’s sci-fi albums . This is undoubtedly the one that goes the farthest in the genre (the two lunar albums are closer to the prospective or the traditional anticipation, The Sunflower Affair is almost in the genre of spy novels ).

After the interlude of Castafiore Jewels , Hergé revives a classic adventure with a backdrop of a volcanic island at the end of the world. He decides to bring in supernatural elements that combine with the old theme of lost civilization. The climate is particularly scary. The story is enriched by two minor characters: Mik Ezdanitoff and Laszlo Carreidas.

Animated series

This album was adapted in the animated series of 1992 . There are some differences between the album and the animated version. In the album, on arrival in Jakarta, Sunflower is angry with the captain, believing that he told him they were in Chandernagorand not in Jakarta. In the animated version, the aviators Colombani and Boehm, as well as Spalding, participate in the whole of the pursuit against Tintin and his companions, whereas in the album, they do not come back until the moment the revolutionaries Sondonesians refuse to enter the mysterious temple. In the album, Rastapopoulos, recovering his spirits, simulates a malaise and then runs away after Tintin and the captain were surprised by the presence of a monitor, in the animated, he takes advantage of the shooting between Tintin and Haddock to Allan and his accomplices to escape. After that, in the album, Tintin frees Dr. Krollspell, first taken as hostage, in the animated, it is Haddock who frees him. In the album, when in the crater of the volcano, Tintin and his companions do not see the flying saucer above them and they are hypnotized by Ezdanitoff before boarding the ship, in the animated they see the device emerge from the smoke of the volcano and are hypnotized once on board. In the album, they are collected unconscious and are all interviewed during a television show (that Séraphin Lampion and his family look at), in the animated, they are found awake and are questioned by the pilot of the plane that the saved, only Tintin and Sunflower then go on television.

Notes and references