Testing Death: Hughes Aircraft Test Pilots and Cold War Weaponry(Praeger Security International)

In 1969, after his return from Vietnam, George Marrett took a job as a test pilot at Hughes Aircraft. For twenty years, he tested the most sophisticated airborne radar and missiles ever designed for advanced Navy and Air Force aircraft. Marrett's masterful command of storytelling puts the reader in the cockpit during the F-15, F-16, and F-18 weapons systems flyoff, as well as during the firing of a Mach 3 Phoenix missile from an F-14A Tomcat at a Soviet MiG Foxbat target. In addition to the weaponry, Marrett relives stories of espionage, deadly crashes, and the development of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber radar. He combines the thrill of test flying with the pathos, humor, and tragedy that is the everyday life of a test pilot, showing how the Cold War was actually won in the skies above Southern California. 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.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by D. Kenneth Richardson Preface Sore Feet Jet Pilot Combat and the F-15 Eagle Fly-Off Impossible Journey 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

About the Author :
George J. Marrett served in the U.S. Air Force and flew the F-86L SabreJet, the F-101B Voodoo, and the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, this last as a Sandy rescue pilot in the 602nd Fighter Squadron (Commando) in Thailand, completing 188 combat missions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Currently, he flies his 1945 Stinson L-5E Sentinel for air shows. He is the author of Cheating Death: Combat Air Rescues in Vietnam and Laos and Howard Hughes: Aviator.

Review :
In Testing Death George Marrett vividly describes his experiences as a Hughes Aircraft Company test pilot during the 1970s and '80s a time of cold war tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. Through detailed recollections of his tests of air-to-air missiles (one of the cold war's lesser known but critically important technological achievements), he reveals the pilot's role in the quest for ever greater improvements in aeronautical science and ever-deadlier weapons. Marrett's stories are so descriptive that even those who have never flown a jet will be able to picture strapping one on and flying a mission. [A] fitting way to honor the men he flew with at Hughes Aircraft Company. Marrett recounts his 20 years as a test pilot for Hughes Aircraft, flying F-15, F-16 and F-18 weapons systems and firing a Mach 3 Phoenix missile from an F-14A Tomcat at a Soviet MiG Foxbat target. He tells stories of espionage and deadly crashes and explains the development of B-2 Spirit stealth bomber radar. The volume includes many photographs of the planes and pilots Marrett describes. There has been no finer way of learning what happened throughout aviation history than by having the story told by one who was there. While numerous aviation writers are pilots who put you right into the cockpit, author and long-time WINGS & AIRPOWER contributor George Marrett chooses to put the reader right into history itself by weaving colorful tales of his aerial exploits or those of people who touched the very history he writes about. Having flown as both an Air Force test pilot and combat pilot in Southeast Asia before being hired as a civilian test pilot for the Hughes Aircraft Company, Marrett takes his readers on a journey back in time….How fortunate he was to have been able to partake of all that history, and how fortunate we are to now be able to read all about it. It is classic aviation storytelling at its best! [A]n eminently-readable book….Marrett's book is about his life as a test pilot, not necessarily of just airplanes, but all the mysterious electronic things that--the military versions, at least--can do, and what it took to be able to get them to do it. You'll meet the fascinating characters he worked with, and learn the secrets of some of the most able (and unable) airplanes around.