The Lonely Sky: Memoir of America's First Experimental Test Pilot | Aviation History Book for Pilots & Aerospace Enthusiasts

Bill Bridgeman's excellent memoir, written with his wife-to-be Jacqueline Hazard, stands as a superb account of one guy being placed squarely at the center of a massive aviation undertaking. And he finds, somewhat to his surprise, that he's up to the task even in its scariest moments.High-performance airplanes are especially good at throwing pilots into unexpected situations literally in a heartbeat. Anyone not ready to cope is the first to arrive at the crash-site. Bill Bridgeman was an experienced Navy pilot who'd worked into engineering test-flight after World War Two, and took up the challenges of supersonic flight with the US Navy's Douglas Skyrocket. He vividly recounts his first ride in a Lockheed F-80 jet fighter---and how a moment's exuberance put him in an out-of-control dive with sonic shock waves violently hammering at the airframe.He learned quickly, and of necessity, how to stay alive in this completely new realm. His portraits of people are just as rich as his edgy account of flying a touchy supersonic blowtorch full of explosive propellants. Chuck Yeager was Bill's frequent 'chase' pilot, and quickly became a valued companion even though they only occasionally met on the ground. He also encountered aviatrix and bar-owner 'Poncho' Barnes, whose Happy Bottom Riding Club gave flight crews a needed place to blow off steam.In the wake of the Skyrocket's successes, Bridgeman encountered the odd, empty sensation of meeting an extraordinary goal and trying to determine where to go from there. In his case, it was flying with the Douglas X-3 program. Eventually, it would be to write this book. This edition features some typographical problems, but they don't seriously detract from the work's essential excellence. Highly recommended.