Lost in the Stratosphere

Two military pilots are close friends, and share in a lot of hazardous missions while engaging in a series of good-natured romantic rivalries. Two military pilots are close friends, and share in a lot of hazardous missions while engaging in a series of good-natured romantic rivalries. But when one of the pilots loses a girl he really cared for, he cannot forgive his friend. Soon afterwards, they must work together on their most dangerous mission yet. —Snow Leopard United States Army Air Corps pilots Lieutenant Tom "Soapy" Cooper and Lieutenant Richard "Woody" Wood are best friends and roommates and love to compete with each other for the same women. Once an attractive woman is spotted near their San Francisco base, she becomes fair game for the clever tricks and counter-tricks of Tom and Richard. Eventually, however, Richard falls in love with a colonel's daughter, Evelyn Worthington, and after their engagement is announced, he tells Tom to stay away from his fiancée. However, Tom meets Evelyn by accident at the train station and, unaware of her identity, makes a date with her. Evelyn, who knows nothing of Tom's relationship with Richard, gives him a false name and, feeling an immediate strong attraction, agrees to see him. When Richard returns to the base from a flying mission, he discovers Evelyn's betrayal and fights with Tom, who has already rejected Evelyn to save his friend's honor. Although their friendship is ruined, Tom and Richard are assigned to fly a dangerous, experimental balloon mission together. During the mission, they break an altitude record, but a life-threatening storm hits and tosses their balloon off course. Richard, finally realizing Tom's innocence, knocks him out and ejects him to safety with his parachute, thereby jeopardizing his own chances of survival. Rescued in Quebec after a crash landing, Richard gives his blessing to Tom and Evelyn from his hospital bed.