Chapter 1 Foresight: Before the First Real Ba-Boom Chapter 2 The Challenge Chapter 3 The Contenders Chapter 4 A Tale of Two Aces Chapter 5 Events, Markers, Milestones, and Records Chapter 6 Hindsight: the Supersonic a Commonplace
Al Blackburn is an aeronautical engineer and former test pilot.
Move over, Chuck Yeager. Take note, Tom Wolfe. Al Blackburn, an
aeronautical engineer and former test pilot, says that George Welch
belongs atop the ziggurat of the right stuff. The case is
circumstantial but persuasive, filled with wonderful yarns.
*Alex Roland, Duke University*
Al Blackburn, a scrappy survivor of the legendary mid-century
roster of top-rank test pilots, has put together a rememberance of
his world that is full of intriguing surprises. Not least is his
thesis that Chuck Yeager may not have been the first person to make
a supersonic flight. This is a story with much wider implications
than whether Yeager or George Welch deserves the accolades for
initially penetrating the sound barrier. And it's told in a style
that neatly blends gripping and colorful anecdotal sequences with
technical explanations that lend the account a high degree of
authenticity.
*Richard Witkin, former Aviation Editor, The New York Times*
A dramatic and historically accurate story.
*Midwest Book Review*
Fascinating.
*Flight Journal*
Sure to stir debate.
*The Buffalo News*
A new voice has been added to the ranks of the great aviation
writers.
*George C. Larson, editor, Air & Space Magazine*
A very interesting book recording how it was and who did what and
to whom during the race to achieve manned supersonic flight.
*Vice Admiral Donald d. Engen, U.S. Navy (ret.), director, National
Air and Space Museum*
Aces Wild does far more than simply entertain or inform. It
thrills, it inspires, and it enlightens. Al Blackburn takes the
reader on the wild ride to do what many had thought impossible:
exceed the speed of sound. He introduces us to a myriad of unique
characters, those free spirits who defied the conventional wisdom
and pushed the performance envelope beyond reasonable limits of
safety.
*Corey C. Jordan, editor, Planes and Pilots of World War II
on-line magazine*
Aces Wild is a very readable and highly personal story of the
growth in fight-testing history between adolescence and maturity,
cowboys and engineers, manual and automated, fighter jocks and a
new breed of scholarly test pilots (Blackburn being one).
*Jeeb Halaby, Federal Aviation Administrator, 1961-1965; CEO, Pan
Am, 1969-1971*
Blackie's love for flying comes through on every page. This book
should appeal to all others who share that love. But it will be of
even greater interest to those who appreciate the role that
aviation has come to play in the modern world.
*John L. McLucas, former Secretary of the Air Force*
Simply superb! Aces Wild will set off a fire storm of argument as
the case is made for the very real possibility that George
'Wheaties' Welch went supersonic in the XP-86 before Chuck Yeager's
epic October 14, 1947, flight.
*Walter J. Boyne*
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