For a light hearted and very entertaining look at test flying I can recommend The Wrong Stuff, by Cdr. John Moore USN Ret.

He trained on the last of big piston fighters, and then covers from the early jets up to the Vigilante

Beamont
 

I'm pretty sure the Roland Beamont book (note Beamont, not Beaumont) was "Against the Sun." It's a charming and extremely intelligent little paperback, in the edition I have. I have heard tell of later books called "Faster than the Sun", but I'm not sure they're by/about the same man.

I'd second the Darrol Stinton recommendations. "The Design of the Aeroplane" kept me inspired for a long time.

What's the Alex Henshaw book ? "Sigh for a Merlin." Not bad, and an interesting insight into how things got done in that era.

If you want to leave strict flight testing for a while and enter literature/atmosphere/whimsy, Richard Bach's "A Gift of Wings" has a lot to it. If you think of yourself as a hard-baked systems-diagram and graphs engineery type, you'll probably detest it heartily. If you have enough wits to look and think deeper, you'll find he speaks on some important matters. (I'm only speaking of that single book. He subsequently wrote some proper tripe.)

Y

Rockets
 

Ah yes - and, if you want to build on from "The Right Stuff" and "Failure is not an Option" try "Riding Rockets" by Mike Mullane. Spacey, obviously.

Y

Yanchik,

' Faster Than The Sun ' was DEFINITELY written by Peter Twiss, covering The Fairey Delta 2's successful attempt on the then world speed record.

I gave my copy to the late Dennis Warren, who was involved in that project, later to become Head of Design Liaison on Harrier & Hawk at Dunsfold.

Roland Beamont
 

Anything by RB is worth reading but particular to you, have a look at
Fighter Test Pilot (from Hurricane to Tornado),a tremendous read.
ISBN 0-85059-850-8.

Mine has a personal inscription to me from RB and is greatly treasured.:)

MM

Yes, of course Roly Beamont's book was 'Against the Sun' and Peter Twiss' 'Faster than the Sun'. Both good reads.

Apologies for a senior moment, confusing the titles. (I first read 'Against the Sun' as a schoolboy, serialised in Grandad's 'John Bull' magazine.)

At The Edge of Space - Milton O. Thompson
 

An excellent account of the X15 program written by one of the test pilots. He also wrote an book on the lifting bodies called 'Flying without Wings' which was also pretty good

BA

FIGHTER PILOT's HEAVEN-Flight Testing the Early Jets by Donald S. Lopez

Carrying The Fire
 

Carrying The Fire by Michael Collins (ex Test Pilot and Apollo 11 Astronaut).

Best written book i have ever read.

ISBN D 8154 1028 X

Trailblazers
 

May I suggest Trailblazers: Test Pilots in Action by Christopher Hounsfield, 2008.
ISBN 978 1 84415 748 8.

Just picked it up, great read, 31 chapters on some interesting flights by some well known guys, plus some great stories by some less well known gentlemen and women, all test pilots.

I really recommend.

JO

Mighty fine tome, Planeless. Albeit not quite in the lofty heights as Gann - who did some "inadvertent" test flying. :eek:

Flying Was My Game - R.J. Scoles (privately printed)

Dick Scoles' test career was primarily in engine development work - sometimes in marginally stable aircraft like the XF4D Skyray. He had to take the bird to the envelope limits, then try to break the engine. :cool:

He also took several airline chief pilots on demo rides, whereupon he presented them with certificates substantiating that they had completed such-and-such a mission "without the aid of a stewardess". :}

"Druid's Circle" by Gp Capt Dixie Dean is a superb book - mainly describibg the development of RPs (rocket projectiles) throughout WWII but includes a great deal about testing the aircraft involved as the two wnet hand in hand when certifying old weapons with new aircraft and vv. He did much of the testing himself.

And despite what has been said about him above one of the the best books ever written on flight testing and training, (if you have the wit to see it), is good ol' Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingstone Seagull...

And what about almost anything written by the late Harald Penrose (Westland CTP up to mid 50s or so)

Vulcan test pilot - Tony Blackman
 

I`m currently reading this book. The contents provides a fascinating insight into the design requirements and testing of artificial devices to provide safety and stability at high mach numbers for this magnificent aeroplane.

"Always Another Dawn" - Scott Crossfield
X-1 through to X-15........
A Pox on the borrower who kept my copy !!

"The Quick and the Dead" - Bill Waterton
A bit grumpy, but many salient points.

TESTING DEATH: Hughes Aircraft Test Pilots and Cold War Weaponry, is an interesting read. all about flight testing of weapon systems.

"The Lonely Sky" by Bill Bridgeman.

Autobiography, mostly about the Douglas Skyrocket program, but also some interesting chapters of how he got into it, and the tedium interspersed with brief moments of terror testing production Skyraiders.

CJ

The Wrong Stuff +Forever Flying
 

The wrong Stuff by John Morre USN ret. ISBN 1-883809-10-X

Booklist rezension:
An aviation cadet during World War II, Moore finished training too late to see action then but made up for it with two tours of duty flying jets in Korea and a distinguished later career as a naval and civilian test pilot. He is eloquent on the number of things that can and, in the early days of jets, usually did go wrong in the air as well as on the virtues and vices of certain aircraft, the F7U Cutlass and the F8F Bearcat in particular, and he tells the story--one worthy of Monty Python--of experimentation in landing fighters with no landing gear on rubber flight decks and runways. His memoirs are breezy, anecdotal, and unrepentant about fighter pilots' traditional pursuit of wine, women, and song but also relay the story of mastering many suicidally dangerous skills and teaching them to others while remaining a loving husband and father--the story of a most deserving citizen of his country. Roland Green

Forever FlyingBob Hoover

The autobigraphy of a flying legend, with many lessons to learn from.

From Booklist
Hardly any aviation buff will not have heard of Hoover, and none will fail to be fascinated by his autobiography. Learning to fly in the late 1930s, Hoover went on to be a decorated fighter pilot in World War II and to survive captivity in Nazi Germany. After the war, he was one of America's leading test pilots for 10 years, and after that, he enjoyed a 40-year career as one of the all-time masters of acrobatic flying. He is best known as a P-51 pilot, but his 30,000 hours of flying have been in more than 100 different aircraft. He also met most of the other important aviators of the last 60 years, which well enables him to offer vivid portraits of the flyers as well as the machines. Thoroughly enthralling from beginning to end, this should be considered a mandatory addition to any self-respecting aviation collection. Roland Green -

Just finished reading 'Contrails over the Mojave' by George Marrett and excellent it is too.

His earlier book, 'Cheating Death', about his Vietnam tour flying Skyraiders is even better.

Flight Testing Books
 

'The Quest for Mach 1' by Chuck Yeager and 'Yeager: an Autobiography' are both good.

Not strictly test flying, more to do with certification, 'Handling the Big Jets' by DP Davies is fascinating.