Testing Death: Hughes Aircraft Test Pilots and Cold War Weaponry
240
Testing Death: Hughes Aircraft Test Pilots and Cold War Weaponry
240Hardcover
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Overview
The background to Marrett's tale is the story of Hughes Aircraft. While Howard Hughes's huge and unwieldy Spruce Goose never made it into World War II, the Radio Department he started grew to become the electronics giant Hughes Aircraft Company. By the 1950s, Hughes Aircraft built airborne radar and missiles for all of the Air Force interceptors stationed on the East and West Coasts and along the border with Canada to defend the United States from Soviet bombers. In the years that followed, the company built airborne radar for the Navy F-14A Tomcat, the Air Force F-15A Eagle, the Navy F-18A Hornet and the B-2 stealth bomber. They also built the Navy air-to-air AIM-54 Phenix and the Air Force air-to-ground AGM-65 Maverick missiles. These advanced electronic weapons were developed and fielded during President Reagan's massive buildup of military might. Even though Hughes himself did not live to see the Berlin Wall fall in 1989, the company he built made an essential contribution to the collapse of communism.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780275990664 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Publication date: | 05/30/2006 |
| Series: | Praeger Security International |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Foreword by D. Kenneth RichardsonPreface
Sore Feet
Jet Pilot
Combat and the F-15 Eagle Fly-Off
Impossible Jourbaney
Ace of the Test Range
Bombing the Blue Eel Railroad Bridge
Flying Dumbo
Gathering of Eagles and one Turkey
California Dreamin'
Hitting the Jackpot in Vegas
A Wasp with Two Stings
The Dream
Epilogue
What People are Saying About This
"George Marrett weaves an excellent tail of the dangers, excitement, and ultimate rewards in the world of test piloting. He creatively connects his hair-raising experiences with other test pilots, such as Howard Hughes, which adds to the quality of this book. This book is valuable for not only its oral history, but also what the reader will learn about aircraft, aircraft testing, and the outcome. This is a must-read for anyone wishing to learn about the contributions made by Hughes Aircraft Company test pilots to late 20th century developments in aviation, weapons, and communications technology."
"The author's life-long love affair with aviation culminates in his test pilot years with Hughes Aircraft Company. George Marrett reveals the human side of testing the high-tech weapons systems of the Cold War. His informative writing is enhanced by a fine sense of humor and irony that he found in the urgent climate of that era. His Air Force fighter pilot training, honed by duties as an interceptor pilot (defending San Francisco) followed by aerial combat in the Vietnam conflict, uniquely qualified Mr. Marrett to test the future generation of weapons ... many of which have seen their post-Cold War payoff in today's mideast battlefields."
"Written with passion, detail and first-person savvy, this is a riveting reminder of how the company that Howard built literally transfomed the skies and blazed new technological trails. George Marrett—who spent 20 years as a Hughes test pilot—focuses on the years leading to the collapse of the Cold War, but also salutes the derring-do and legacy of the American original who founded Hughes Aircraft. Fasten your seatbelts..."
"George J. Marrett has done it again, with another first rate aviation book that more than lives up to its title Testing Death. Only someone who has pushed aircraft, life and philosophy to the limit can write like this. Some books are page turners-this is a page stopper as you pause to reflect on the depth of what he has written."
"With his new book Testing Death Howard Hughes Test Pilots and Cold War Weapons, George Marret has done it again, writing in an absorbing sequel to his earlier Cheating Death: Combat Air Rescues in Vietnam and Laos, an important and exciting chapter of history coming at the end of the Cold War. This true personal account is yet another carefully researched and cleverly crafted bit of non-fiction—his is a great story and Marret demonstrates once again that he knows to tell it."
"George Marrett not only describes an exceptional aviation career in vivid terms, but he places his extraordinary experiences and memorable people in context of the Cold War—a half-century conflict that was waged every day in laboratories, factories, and in the cockpits of a generation of now-historic aircraft."
"Testing Death is much more than a good read, although it is certainly that. It is an invaluable record of the testing and development of the radars and missiles that transformed air warfare, both air-to-ground and air-to-air, in the latter part of the 20th century. George Marrett, as a Hughes Aircraft Company test pilot, was directly involved in the testing of most of these new systems. He describes not only the systems, but the techniques of the testing, the problems and the solutions. All of this is presented in the same clear, readable style he displayed in his earlier books. I recommend it highly."