Designing high-performance military aircraft in the slide-rule era was challenging. Being the first person to fly these airplanes and expand an aircraft's flight envelope was often very frightening, if not downright deadly. It is hard to believe that someone could really endure 22 years in this occupation, plus another 30 years in the aircraft industry, often leading the industry-wide transition from large, too-complicated piston engines to doggy, unreliable jet engines and from 300-mile-per-hour (barn doors through ...
Read More
Designing high-performance military aircraft in the slide-rule era was challenging. Being the first person to fly these airplanes and expand an aircraft's flight envelope was often very frightening, if not downright deadly. It is hard to believe that someone could really endure 22 years in this occupation, plus another 30 years in the aircraft industry, often leading the industry-wide transition from large, too-complicated piston engines to doggy, unreliable jet engines and from 300-mile-per-hour (barn doors through slippery transonic and supersonic airframes. But this is, in fact, the truly remarkable v if not virtually unparalleled v life story of Corky Meyer. In an occupation and time which killed many, if not most, this man had the brains, skill, and good luck to meet every challenge that faced him and survive to tell his amazing story. It is a story that covers the most important era in the history of flight, told by a man at the epicenter of the activity. Corky Meyer's Flight Journal is an electrifying tale of a very passionate and patriotic man, his wife and family, and of course his numerous sensational close calls as an experimental fighter test pilot.
Read Less
