Fighter Pilot's Heaven: Flight Testing the Early Jets

Lopez, Donald S.

ISBN 10: 1560984570 / ISBN 13: 9781560984573

Published by Smithsonian Inst Pr, 1995

First Edition, First Printing. Published by Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. Octavo. Blue cloth over black boards stamped in silver. Book is like new; clean with no writing or names. Sharp corners and spine straight. Binding tight and pages crisp. Dust jacket is like new. 222 pages. ISBN: 9781560984573. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions or if you would like a photo. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Southampton, New York. We Buy Books! Individual titles, libraries, collections. Message us if you have books to sell! Seller Inventory # 111770

Synopsis:

Fighter Pilot's Heaven presents the dramatic inside story of the American military's transition into the jet age, as told by a flyer whose life depended on its success. With colorful anecdotes about fellow pilots as well as precise technical information, Donald S. Lopez describes how it was to be “behind the stick” as a test pilot from 1945 to 1950, when the U.S. military was shifting from war to peacetime operations and from propeller to jet aircraft.

An ace pilot who had served with Gen. Claire Chennault's Flying Tiger Fighter Group, Lopez was assigned at the close of World War II to the elite Proof Test Group of the Air Proving Ground Command. Located at Eglin Field (later Eglin Air Force Base) in Florida, the group determined the operational suitability of Air Force weapons systems and aircraft and tested the first operational jet, the P-80 Shooting Star. Jet fighters required new techniques, tactics, and weaponry. Lopez recounts historic test flights in the P-59, P-80, and P-84, among other planes, describing complex combat maneuvers, hair-raising landings in unusual positions, and disastrous crashes and near crashes. This memoir is peppered with lively accounts of many pilots and their colleagues, revealing how airmen coped with both exhilarating successes and sometimes tragic failures.

About the Author: Donald S. Lopez is the deputy director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and a former pilot with the 23rd Flying Tiger Fighter Group in China. He is the author of several books, including Into the Teeth of the Tiger (1986).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Fighter Pilot's Heaven: Flight Testing the ...
Publisher: Smithsonian Inst Pr
Publication Date: 1995
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Like New
Dust Jacket Condition: Like New
Edition: First Edition.