num_pages: 284
description: A chief test pilot recounts his hair-raising experiences with the RAF in this detailed and often-witty memoir. Includes photos. The Falkland Islands had been invaded and a Task Force was already steaming south at full speed. On board the carriers were the Harriers that would provide essential aerial cover for the British troops and ships sent to recapture the islands. They would be entering particularly hostile territory and the types capabilities urgently needed to be expanded and proved. This was a job that Ron Burrows and the test pilots of his elite Fighter Test Squadron at Boscombe Down were ready to take on. From the 1960s to the 1990s Ron test-flew all the RAFs fast-jetsin the process of which he survived two crash landings and two emergency ejections as well as numerous other close shaves. A master of his craft he rose to become the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishments chief test pilot and this is his remarkable story. With four test-flying tours under his belt and close-air-support missions flying Hunters in the Aden Emergency Rons experiences extended throughout the critical final decades of the Cold War. A graduate of the US Navys test pilot school he has flown an unusually broad range of US and UK aircraft from fast-jets to heavy multi-engine aircraft. With his unrivaled knowledge and expertise he is able to explain the methods techniques and demands of his profession with many examples of what can and often does go wrong in aircraft development and testing. His descriptions of his near misses and catastrophic accidents are written with color and candor. But he also tries to inform the reader about the skills required to fly and test fast-jets and about the development of cockpit displays and design highlighting some of the issues and problems encountered in development and in operation. If it can go wrong it will go wrong could be the subtitle of this frank and witty account which flies along with the speed of one of those fast-jets.
language: English
title: Cold War Test Pilot: Surviving Crash Landings and Emergency Ejections: From Fast-Jets to Heavy Multi-Engine Aircraft
publisher: Air World