MEN IN THE AIR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 915, 22 February 1957, Page 13

MEN IN THE AIR

VAPOUR TRAILS, by Mike Lithgow; Allan Wingate, N.Z. price 13/6. BORN TO FLY by Georges Blond; Souvenir Press, English rice 16/-. ACROSS THE HIGH FRON TER, by W. R. Lundgren; Victor Gollancz. English price 16/6. HESE -three books are about pilots, the first about test pilots, the second about air "aces" of air forces engaged in the last war. and the third devoted to one man-the first to exceed the speed of sound. On first glance Vapour Trails would be taken for another book by the famous

eupermarine test plot. In fact, although Mike Lithgow’s name appears as author, he states in his foreword that he invited a different test pilot to write each chapter. Lithgow has _ collected examples of three different generations of test pilot, those who learned to fly in the very beginning, those of the interwar years, and the products of the test

pilots’ University at Boscombe Down. While his mounts have changed out of all recognition, the test pilot’s job is the same as it always has been-putting into practice someone else’s theories. From their writings it is interesting to note the very different personalities attracted to this somewhat exacting job. Born to Fly gives potted biographies of some of the top-scoring fighter pilots of eight different countries. Probably the outstanding feature of Georges Blond’s book is the striking similarity in the behaviour pattern of fighter pilots the world over. In Across the High Frontier, W. R. Lundgren tells of all the preparatory work which led up to that historic flight in October 1947 when, for the first time an aircraft exceeded the speed of sound. This is a similar story to that told in The Lonely Sky, which dealt with the Douglas Skyrocket. These high-speed projects were being developed around the same time; but the Bell project, which was taken over by the United States Air Force, was so far ahead that it fell to Charles E. Yeager’s lot to reach supersonic flight first. When Bridgeman came to test the Douglas Skyrocket he had the knowledge that supersonic flight was possible. Before Yeager’s famous flight many people believed that supersonic flight would inevitably produce stresses of disintegrating magnitude. In the event the pilot was unaware until the readings were analysed after landing that he had achieved supersonic speed. This may maké it sound a fairly routine job, but the details given in Across the High Frontier leave the reader in no doubt as to the hazardous nature of high speed projects. It is a truly magnificent story, but for my own taste rather spoiled by the let’s-pretend-you’re-the-pilot style used by this

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