This is a tale of the generation of test pilots flying experimental aircraft powered by rocket motors during the period from 1945 to the mid-1970s. It is not a technical description of the aircraft they flew but the narrative of the men who built the machines and the pilots who took to the air to achieve unprecedented speeds and altitudes unequalled to the present. It is a human story, but one carved out of the evolving post-war world, coming to terms with a new tension between global superpowers and one in which technological progress was arguably the greatest it has been since 1945. The book integrates the story of post-war US industry, the competitive drive to survive between plane-makers made rich by war production, challenged by the changed times of demobilisation and peace. Into the mix come fighter pilots and company men eager to sustain their craft and take on new challenges, alongside an emerging generation of post-war graduates straight from engineering or flight school, eager to make their mark. With a focus on those who achieved extraordinary things like Major 'Chuck' Yeager, Scott Crossfield and Joe Walker, there is also inclusion of those outside of the US's endeavours including how Eric 'Winkle' Brown became the only non-German to fly the rocket-powered Me 163 and the test-flying of John Booth and Peter Lamb. Rocket Boys is a record of the glorious years when nothing seemed impossible and which produced a group that propelled aviation into the stratosphere with devil-may-care attitudes and personal fortitude, with death and disaster stalking the very best. AUTHOR: With a background in the aviation and space industry, working with companies and government organisations in the UK and the USA, David Baker has made a lifelong study of aeronautical and aerospace projects to inform his research into the men and the machines of flight and flying. He has written more than 100 books and since the 1990s has served as editor for Horizon, the house magazine for Smiths Industries, for Janes Information Group on two yearbooks, on Aviation News and on SpaceFlight, the monthly magazine of the British Interplanetary Society. David had experience working with NASA and managing his aerospace consulting company from offices in London and in Trenton, New Jersey, visiting many countries around the world to advise governments and organisations on aeronautical and aerospace programmes. In the 1980s, David was made a voting member of the International Academy of Astronautics and received the 1998 Rolls-Royce Award for the 'Best Propulsion Submission', a category within the RAeS Aerospace Journalist of the Year awards. He is also the recipient of the Arthur C Clarke Award and of the American Astronautical Society's Frederick I Ordway III award for 'sustained excellence in space coverage, through books and articles, as well as engagement in the early US space program', presented at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. David lives with his wife Ann in East Sussex.
