War : Spying and Flying (Mach Books Book 1)

In the new sci-fi movie Transformers: The real-life reconnaissance plane, an SR Blackbird, is the basis for the character Jetfire, a souped-up superplane brought to life by the film's animators. The Transformers franchise recounts a series of epic battles between two factions of alien robots who disguise themselves by morphing into machines. Of course, the actual SR Blackbird had transformed manned flight long before special-effects animators saw its potential.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: The Illustrated History of America’s Legendary Mach 3 Spy Plane

Created as the ultimate spy plane, the SR, which first took to the air in December , flew reconnaissance missions until , capable of hurtling along at more than Mach 3, about 2, miles per hour—faster than a rifle bullet—at 85, feet, or 16 miles above the earth. It is the fastest jet-powered airplane ever built. At top speeds, the surface heat of the airframe could reach degrees Fahrenheit. In their pressurized suits and breathing pure oxygen—mandated by the extreme altitude—the two-man crew looked like astronauts.

Brian Shul, one of fewer than a hundred pilots who flew the plane on recon missions from Beale Air Force base in California as well as bases in England and Japan, calls the SR simply "the most remarkable airplane of the 20th century. We'll never see a plane like that again. The Udvar-Hazy Blackbird, identified by its tail number, , holds several records, including: New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes Another Blackbird, , set the record for average jet speed: That day, a team including Air Force Lt.

Ed Yeilding and Lt. I asked Shul, a former Air Force fighter pilot and Vietnam veteran who has written two books about the Blackbird—one recounting his reconnaissance for a dramatic raid on Libya in —what it was like to fly such a phenomenal craft. Each mission was designed to fly at a certain speed; you always knew the airplane had more. It was like driving to work in a double-A fuel dragster. Even if it can be made, how does one keep Mach 6 air from blowing out the flame in any jet engine that can also run both at takeoff and landing speeds?

Then what about the four undiscovered speed barriers between Mach 1 and Mach 6, each potent enough to rip an ordinary plane to shreds? This book has given NASA ideas. Recently, they trotted out a Gulfstream using hingeless flaps like the Spectre in this novel. In the 21st century, who really needs an aircraft tail or windows?

How do you prevent landing gear door hinges or aileron hinges from burning off? What kind of fuel has the energy to power the craft for 90 minutes, flying from San Francisco to Paris, Moscow, Beijing or Tokyo? How, indeed, when those enemies might even have private nukes on US soil? There will be many more. Well, that let the cat out of the bag! They do survive "Mach 6" to reappear in "The Room bOmb," already published. Do enjoy a tale as strong and twisty as a hawser, twisted of ropes, twisted of strings, twisted of threads, twisted of black widow spider webs. The trouble with espionage is that spies never seem to know which things are which.

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Please try again later. An airplane that's powerful enough to exceed Mach 6 would surely take off like a rocket ship. It would have to look about like the one on the cover, if that's not a satellite photo dubbed onto a globe. No cockpit with windows that melt. The Story of a Rocket Test Pilot. Here's how restrictions apply.

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William Morrow July 24, Language: Start reading Chasing the Demon on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. See all customer images. Read reviews that mention sound barrier breaking the sound dan hampton world war chasing the demon chuck yeager breaking the sound test pilots well written george welch test pilot quest to break wwii history aviation history history of aviation pilots involved written book good book history book flight.

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In the process of getting to the essence of this history, the author provides the reason why the US lost the lead in aircraft development after the Wright Brothers had the first flight, the real reason for the Great Depression, a quick review of the Second World War and other topics. All of this resulted in a lot of interesting tidbits of information, but at times, I wondered what this book was about. In the last section, he got to the topic at hand - breaking the sound barrier or "chasing the demon" as the title notes.

The demon refers to the fear that an airplane couldn't pass the speed of sound with the survival of the pilot.

The Ultimate Spy Plane | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian

Two planes, and two separate pilots accomplished this very close to each other, the X-1 Bell Rocket plane and the XP86, Sabre jet. Although there is some question about who did it first, the official statement is that the X-1 Bell Rocket plane accomplished it flown by Chuck Yeager. This book is also a testimony to the "test pilot".

The individuals who flew these experimental aircraft for the first time. Many of them died in the process of testing these prototype aircraft.

Editorial Reviews

As the author states, the only way to determine whether a plane works the way it was designed and how well it works was to get into the cockpit and fly it. That took a lot of courage.

I hope the author continues with further books on these great men. All the book was interesting, but the last section makes the book worth the read for anyone interested in US History. I honestly had to check and see if this was actually meant as a 'young adult' light reading book - it seems to be about that level to me. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but it came nowhere near to meeting what I thought I was getting.

I'd call it a good book for a teen interested in aviation, but it's a disappointment for a reasonably knowledgeable aviation enthusiast, history buff or anyone who knows more than the basic history of fighters Wikipedia article.