By Mark Rhodes

Wonder Woman, AKA Princess Diana of Paradise Island, created by William Moulton Marston, is without a doubt the most famous and influential female superhero in comics history. The past year 2016 saw her celebrate her 75th anniversary, and 2017 will see her come to cinematic life in a live-action feature starring Gail Gadot set during World War I. Wonder Woman’s iconic status today overshadows in some ways her origins, which were connected to early feminist thought that foreshadowed the women’s movement of the mid to late 20th century.  

So it was with Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane. The Invisible Plane made its first appearance in Sensation Comics # 1 in 1942. This creation was the handiwork of Princess Diana as a youth on Paradise Island. The idea being that the Plane could fly undetected at high speeds without necessarily having to engage in combat unless absolutely necessary (a theme of the early Wonder Woman stories set during World War II was the collateral damage of male-oriented military conflict). Of course this notion foreshadowed late 20^th to early 21st century stealth aircraft. 

Besides being invisible, the plane could travel at more than 2,000 mph and was able to be activated and summoned by Wonder Woman’s tiara where she would board it or exit it from a rope ladder. As Wonder Woman’s narrative advanced in the comics, the plane evolved into an ever more sophisticated mode of transportation, being able to fly into space with minimal effort. Reflecting advancements in aviation in general, the plane evolved into a jet in the 1950s.