Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot - Hardcover

The fascinating diary of the WWII bomber and postwar test pilot (after whom Edwards Air Force Base was named) placed into context by Ford, a contributing editor at Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine. Although many WWII memoirs have appeared in recent years, Edwards's rises above the rest with his honest and captivating accounts of daily life for a combat pilot in Africa. Also excellent is Ford's commentary: He gives non-flying readers all the necessary technical information without attempting a course in aeronautical engineering. Edwards's training and combat career are interesting, but less colorful than his indoctrination into the first ranks of the armys test pilots (this in the days before the Air Force was formed). His accounts of jumping into any plane he could get near, and of hopping through the country in search of beautiful women, sometimes, even, Hollywood starlets, offer a unique perspective on the world just after the war, when multitudes of young men returned from overseas and the military pilot was just as much a symbol of glamour as the movie idol. Edwards himself was assigned soon enough to head the test program on the radical and ill-fated Northrop Flying Wing Bomber (he would be killed during testing).While at work on that, he contributed important findings to aircraft research and helped to change the position of test pilot from one offered to any skilled pilot to that of a highly trained scientist. Edwards's own words are skillfully interwoven with Ford's, offering a richly detailed account of postwar aviation and the infant years of the military-industrial complex. (photos, not seen) (From Kirkus Reviews; Copyright (c)1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.) Ford [has] a splendid writing style and understands the modern Air Force. Reading his book is a real treat. (Military Review, 1999) Highly recommended. (Today's Library, 1999) A fascinating tale and a tribute to an unassuming man who simply loved to fly. (Air&Sp

In 1941 at the age of 23, Glen Edwards learned to fly in a wood, metal, and fabric biplane; in 1948, he died in the fiery crash of a Northrop Flying Wing, one of the Air Force's most advanced jet-propelled bombers. Conveying both the exhaustion of combat and the exhilaration of flying some of the world's fastest, most sophisticated planes, Edward's diary entries trace the full trajectory of his career: the near-daily bombing missions over Africa and Italy for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross, a record-breaking cross-country flight in 1945 as the lead pilot of the Douglas XB-42 "Mixmaster, " his assignment to Wright Field, "the Mecca of all Army pilots, " a stint at Princeton to study aircraft stability and control, and participation in developing the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing. Setting Edwards's career in historical context and describing the strengths and weaknesses of the planes he flew, including the controversial Flying Wing, a precursor of the B-2 Stealth Bomber, Daniel Ford provides both a first-person look at the life of a bomber pilot and a broad view of aviation in an era of extraordinary change.