Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot, From the Invasion of North Africa to His Death in the Flying Wing. This item is unavailable.Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot, From the Invasion of North Africa to His Death in the Flying Wing

In 1941, Glen Edwards learned to fly in a fabric-covered biplane. Seven years later, he died in the crash of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing, the Air Force’s most advanced jet-propelled aircraft and forerunner of the B-2 Stealth bomber of today. As a combat pilot in North Africa and Italy during World War II, and as a test pilot during a period of astonishing innovation, Edwards was among the best of a new generation of military aviators. The isolated desert base at Muroc, California, where Edwards crashed would be named in his honor.All through his military career, Glen Edwards kept a daily record of what he did and what he thought. Military historian Daniel Ford situates that diary in the context of World War II, the development of flight testing as a science, and the birth of an independent U.S. Air Force. He shows how military pilots in the 1940s augmented their seat-of-the-pants bravado and precision flying skills with rigorous academic training. Conveying both the exhaustion of combat and the exhilaration of flying some of the world’s fastest, most sophisticated planes, the book traces the tragic course of Glen Edwards’s career: the near-daily bombing missions over Africa and Italy, a record-breaking cross-country flight in the XB-42 Mixmaster, and trial flights in the YB-49 Flying Wing—the first plane Edwards ever actively disliked. The innovative Northrop bomber, Daniel Ford concludes, just wasn’t ready for prime time. About 70,000 words; with photographs from the Air Force and the Edwards family."A fascinating tale and a tribute to an unassuming man who simply loved to fly." -- Air&Space/Smithsonian

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