The Incredible Invisible Plane

WONDER WOMAN’s Invisible Plane can be viewed (ahem) as either the most stupid idea in the world of comic book history or an idea so profound us mere mortals can only marvel at it. Let’s see what we know about it…

- Nigel Watson

It has gone from being called the Transparent Plane, which is the most accurate description, and the Jet, Jetplane, Swanplane, Wonder Plane, the Invisible Robot Plane (it is not robotic as Diana is usually shown piloting it) to the generally accepted Invisible Plane.

Depictions of it always show the outlines of its body, with Wonder Woman inside it operating its controls. This helps us to get an idea of the shape of the craft, rather than seeing the occupants of it suspended in midair blasting across the sky, and reinforces the original conceit that it is transparent rather than fully invisible. Even if the story does say it is fully invisible, this transparent rule is followed for the sake of visualising it as part of the action.

The Invisible Plane first appeared (so to speak) in January 1942, in Sensation Comics #1, where Wonder Woman/Diana Prince uses it to fly military intelligence officer Captain Steve Taylor back to the USA after he crash landed on Paradise Island, home to her and her fellow Amazons. In the early years, it was a propeller-driven aircraft, capable of a top speed of 2,000 mph. The craft responded to telepathic commands transmitted through Wonder Woman’s tiara. By the 1950s, it transformed into a jet-propelled craft and it had the ability to turn into a spaceship.

The origins of the aircraft are not as clearcut. One early version is that Diana improved the aircraft invented by the technologically advanced Amazons of Themyscira (the Paradise Island given to them by the Olympian Gods), by giving it the ability to be invisible. As a reward, they gifted it to her to save Steve Taylor.