Flying the Edge: The Making of Navy Test Pilots

by George C. Wilson

Presents a first-hand account of a year spent with the one hundredth test pilot class at the Naval Air Test Center, from hours of test flights and interviews with naval and civilian test pilots and engineers

Hardcover

First published December 1, 1992

About the author

George C. Wilson, former national defense correspondent for The Washington Post, is the author of six books on military affairs.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and very thorough. Anchors away!

[Hans · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book tells the story of the test pilots flying from Patuxent River at the Naval Air Test Center. But it does more, and less...

The author participated in the Class 100 lectures in January 1991. What I had expected was to learn far more from this group of aviators than was the case at the end. Yes, we do follow them some part of the way, but large parts remain unmentioned. I was also surprised by the subtitle of the book 'In the cockpit with Navy test pilots'. Only a number of the pilots of Class 100 turn out to be naval aviators, others are from the USAF and USMC and there are even some foreign pilots. My version of the book shows an F-15E Strike Eagle, not a USN type of aircraft. I like the Eagle a lot, but some other aircraft type would have been more appropriate.

The real value of the book lies in it describing the history of the birth of USN test flying and the many, sometimes hairraising, stories that show what dangers were involved in this. Those stories keep you glued to the pages. Other parts that I really enjoyed described how test pilots do their evaluation of flight characteristics of aircraft. Those parts are really worth reading since it is done in such a way that you can really understand what is taking place and why.

Since the book dates from the early 90's, some of the information has become obsolete. There is a long chapter about the T-45A Goshawk trainer, at that time still in its early stages, but now part of the USN inventory. It shows the value of what the test pilots d0 and what happens when polititics and economics interfere.

The 'Tailhook scandal' is covered too. And quite deeply, in about 25 pages, for a book that is meant to cover test pilots. Let me state clearly here that what happened there, and afterwards, is way out of line! This is really a deep black page for USN history. But should this be part of a book covering the world of (Navy) test pilots? I think that a lot of people that buy the book to read about test pilots, and their work, might skip this as being nonrelated with the topic of the book.

Overall I liked the flying and history parts of the book, but it fell short in some places and covered some that was not directly related to the main story of the book.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book.