John Bishop said:
2 quoted lines
I think all or most of the little asides are a reference
to something; the airplane is a clue which I can't decipher,
I always felt that this scene is a tribute to the genre of pulp adventure, rather than a specific reference to a historical event. The plane, I thought was a device to show that the characters have been moved both in space, as in the desert garden, and now in time, too. A prop plane is jarringly incongruous in the glassed-in dome of the Gardens and for me invoked the Tarzan movies of the 50's and King Solomon's Mines.
Later, when I read The Last Thrilling Wonder Story and The Island of Doctor Death, I was reminded of the jungle scene. All three are, at least in part, an homage to a genre.
Craig