Test Pilots at the Edge: Pushing the Boundaries of Flight, 1914-1964

The contract for this ms. has been canceled at the request of the author, 3/14/2023.

As young men and women tested the limits of manned flight one by one, the first century of America's Aviation Age unfolded with high drama and excitement--tinged as it was with tragedy and sadness when brave aviators died reaching for the stars. An aerospace revolution--catalyzed by the exploits of the Wright brothers, Samuel Pierpont Langley, Charles Lindbergh, Hap Arnold, Jimmy Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong and hundreds of others--captured the imagination of Americans old and young, rich and poor.

This book explores aviation's evolutionary process, from biplanes and propeller aircraft through the early decades of jet engines. It also explores the Cold War space race, in which two superpowers waged an ideological, economic and military struggle for global influence. In doing so, it sheds new light on the causes and effects of America's singular contributions to the golden age of aerospace history.