Danger rides in the cockpit with every test pilot. He is flying a new airplane or using new equipment, not knowing what will happen under the stress of flight. His job is to make sure that everything is right before other, less experienced, pilots take over. Here is a collection of dramatic, exciting stories about the work of these men which goes back to the beginning of aviation. Orville Wright tells how he made his historic flight at Kitty Hawk. An Army test pilot describes what happened when he flew over seven miles high in 1921. We ride with the first pilot to travel faster than 400 miles an hour and fly in a souped up plane at the National Air Base. The stories of the men who tested the planes of World War II and those who were the first to fly the new jets when the war was over are all here. Finally there are the exciting adventures of the new breed of test pilot, the men who are all at once expert aeronautical engineers and skillful pilots and who do their work high above the earth or in space itself.

Includes index.

The first test pilots. -- Testing planes for World War II. -- Testing the jets. -- Test flying the X-series airplanes. -- Test pilots in space.