Why am I passionate about this?
As a NASA Flight Controller and crewman on the high-altitude research aircraft, I met many pilots, including those who flew X-planes. I became passionate about extreme and experimental flying. I have experienced supersonic flight and have flown to 70,000 feet. These experiences motivated me to write three books about X-planes: Stratonauts, X-59: Lowering the Sonic Boom, and X-66A: Bracing for the Future.
Manfred's book list on unique aviation flights
Why did Manfred love this book?
This book describes the very beginning of experimental flights at the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range. When the U.S. entered WWII, it began looking for an isolated location to conduct flight testing of Top-Secret aircraft. Muroc provided the ideal location for cutting-edge flight research on the turbojet revolution.
After the end of the War in 1946, however, a new type of research activity designed to explore the most challenging unknowns of flight began. This was the dawn of the “X-Planes.” Today, this place is called Edwards Air Force Base.
1 author picked X-Planes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Edwards Air Force Base began life in September 1933 as the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range. By early 1942 the Flight Test Division at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio began looking for an isolated location to conduct flight testing of Top Secret aircraft. The 44-square mile Rogers Dry Lake located nearby the training base at Muroc provided the ideal location. Eventually, all of America’s early jets, both Air Force and Navy, underwent flight testing at Muroc, which quickly became synonymous with the cutting edge flight research of the turbojet revolution. By 1946, however, a new type of research activity designed…
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