Twin brothers Tom and Sidney Weston get summer jobs as bellhops near a military base which is testing a revolutionary jet. Sidney becomes convinced that there is a plot to steal the jet (he's right, but his suspicions focus on the wrong people) while Tom tries to keep his brother from embarrassing himself and getting them fired.
- Berserk Button: "Wings" Weinberg is the greatest test pilot in the world, but he has one weakness: his flight-school partnership with the crazy, crash-prone Bert Cobber has left him so traumatized that any mention of Cobber, or even of his days as a cadet, sends him into hysterics. Guess who's the pilot who has been hired to steal the experimental plane Wings will be flying...
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder:
- Tom Weston works hard to control the conspiracy theories of his brother Sidney and keep him from expressing them in public.
- Professional spy Richard Knight has the same relationship with Bert Cobber, the talented but completely flaky pilot who keeps getting into trouble any time Knight leaves him alone. At one point Knight finds the only way to get Cobber to study the flight plans is to hold him at gunpoint.
- Crying Wolf: Sidney has a history of seeing crimes and conspiracies everywhere and reporting them to the police. He is honestly confused about why the police no longer take him seriously even though they repeatedly explain it to him in great (and venomous) detail.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Sidney thinks that the spy is a guest named Lawrence Waghorn (really, he's just writing a spy screenplay). Ms. Fuller (an old woman who Sidney lets slip his suspicions to) thinks the spy is a guest named Mr. Kitzel. Due to the scrutiny she displays towards him, Mr. Kitzel thinks that Ms. Fuller is an Intimidating Revenue Service agent after him for fudging his tax returns (causing him to make a Suspiciously Specific Denial in her presence every chance that he gets).
- Pragmatic Villainy: Mr. Knight considers trying to get the twins fired after discovering Sidney's detective work but decides that doing so would draw too much attention to himself. Knight also rescues his incompetent accomplice Cobber from the authorities at the end (despite his dislike of the man) so that Cobber won't give up any information about him.
- Self-Serving Memory: Cobber keeps recounting his Ace Pilot exploits in flight school and how he was a friend and mentor to the revered test pilot Wings Weinberg. Wings remembers Cobber as a bullying Captain Crash who repeatedly endangered Wings' life and left him with PTSD.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Knight proves to be good at adapting his plan as things fall apart in the climax. When Mrs. Fuller stumbles across him and realizes he's a spy, he bluffs her into thinking that he's a government agent, "deputizes" her, and sends her to arrest Mr. Kitzel. When Wings Weinberg is sent up in a second plane to force Cobber down, Knight realizes that Wings is afraid of Cobber from listening to their radio conversation and makes several comments into his own radio to reinforce this fear and rattle Wings more. When Cobber is arrested, Knight rescues him while disguised as an MP and presents him with the money, fake ID, and plane ticket to flee to Tibet.
