In Contrails over the Mojave George Marrett takes off where Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff ended in 1963. Marrett started the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB only two weeks after the school's commander, Col. Chuck Yeager, ejected from a Lockheed NF-104 trying to set a world altitude record. He describes life as a space cadet experiencing 15 G's in a human centrifuge, zero-G maneuvers in a KC-135 "Vomit Comet," and a flight to 80,000 feet in the F-104A Starfighter. After graduating from Yeager's "Charm School," he was assigned to the Fighter Branch of Flight Test Operations, where he flew the latest fighter aircraft and chased other test aircraft as they set world speed and altitude records.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Don't kill yourself -- Chasing the whistle -- USAF flight school -- Defending the Golden Gate -- Cold War -- Charm school -- Space cadets -- Flight test operations -- Fighter branch -- Phantom foibles -- Metal falling from the sky.