Skybreaker
Kenneth Oppel
 Matt Cruse has been stationed on the Flotsam, an old cargo ship. The Flotsam is his training vessel. All Airship Academy students are assigned a training vessel for two weeks, he is assigned to partake in journeys made by the training vessel. During one trip, the ship flies through the Devil's Fist, a permanent storm in the Indian Ocean. After several dangerous maneuvers through wind drafts, the Flotsam levels. A vessel, drifting at 20,000 feet, is suddenly spotted from the crow's nest. Captain Tritus deduces that it is the Hyperion, a long-lost ship built for billionaire Theodore Grunel that was supposedly carrying great riches. Tritus foolishly attempts to go tow the ship; however, he and most the crew are stricken with altitude sickness. Despite Tritus's protests, Matt, the sole crew member unaffected by the altitude, pilots the ship down and steers for the nearest port, saving the crew in the process. Matt returns to the Airship Academy where he is approaching finals and is told by the principal that he is failing and needs to study to pass the exams. Matt then gets a request to meet a strange man named John Rath requesting the coordinates of the Hyperion. When the man is revealed to be a criminal in search of the Hyperion's loot, Matt escapes with a gypsy girl named Nadira. Matt, Kate, Nadira and Kate's chaperone Ms. Simpkins hire a man named Hal Slater, an accomplished pilot, to fly them to the Hyperion. The group travels several days toward Skyberia, a cold and desolate area around the Antarctic. They discover a large, squid-like creature that lives in the sky when it gets trapped in the ship's rudder. One of the crew dies while trying to get it out. Hal then allows Matt to become part of the crew. Kate and Hal begin to get along, causing Matt to feel jealous. Nadira and Matt kiss in the crow's nest shortly after. Matt and Kate's relationship begin to falter. They find out that there's a homing signal coming from the ship, and Hal immediately suspects Nadira because of her secretive nature and because she's a gypsy. Matt realizes Rath put the beacon in the lining of his duffel. He interrupts Hal's rough search of Nadira's cabin where it is revealed her father was Szpirglas. Hal locks Nadira in her cabin for a day, but Matt and Kate get him to let her out. Soon after, they come across the "Hyperion". While exploring the skies in the ship, they learn from Grunel's diary that a man named "B" is searching for the ship to plunder it. They dismiss "B" as a product of Grunel's diseased mind, but later find out that "B" is Barton, Rath's employer who wished to steal Grunel's work years ago, as Grunel was a brilliant inventor and scientist, and also studied rare animals. It is revealed that Rath, Barton, and the rest of the group are also on an airship headed toward the Hyperion. Aboard Hal's ship, the Sagarmatha, the gang finds the Hyperion and climbs aboard. They find a whole collection of rare animals and a blueprint of a machine that produces hydrium. Knowing that the blueprints will be worth millions, the gang tries to leave, but is stranded on the ship when Rath and his men shoot at the Sagarmatha. Kate later reveals she knew that Matt and Nadira kissed and they made up. After a battle onboard (during which the animals strike Rath and Barton, killing Barton but leaving Rath's fate unknown), the gang manages to escape the Hyperion in an ornithopter before the ship is destroyed. They lose the blueprints, but ultimately get away with 40 gold bars, found in a compartment of the ornithopter.