This story takes place in a period when Dick Tracy flew to the moon regularly. This element was later taken out and eventually Chester Gould was taken off the strip. I prefer the original Chester Gould version, myself.
The missing aviatrix in this story is modeled after Amelia Earhart, whose Lockheed Electra was lost at sea in 1937.
Amelia Earhart was flying a Lockheed Electra when she disappeared.
A shot of Amelia Earhart's plane.
A three-view of the Lockheed Electra.
And here we have the other plane mentioned in the story, the Gotha Go 46.
And a three-view of the Gotha.
One plane does appear to be close enough that someone might try to disguise it as the other. One obvious difference is that the Lockheed has a twin tail. But the Gotha could have been fitted with a similar tail with little difficulty.
In real life there were people who thought Amelia Earhart had been shot down by the Japanese. Although it might have been more likely that she ran out of gas. Which is the more usual explanation as to what happened to her.
Amelia Earhart:
http://www.ameliaearhart.com/
http://blogs.denverpost.com/library/2012/07/02/amelia-earharts-disappearance-75-years/2089/
Gotha 146:
http://www.wwiivehicles.com/germany/aircraft/transport/gotha-go-146-transport.asp
Lockheed Electra:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Model_10_Electra
A
