The Lonely Sky: The Personal Story of America’s Pioneering Experimental Test Pilot

By William Bridgeman with Jacqueline Hazard

The Lonely Sky tells the story of William Bridgeman, an aviator from the “greatest generation” and his journey from World War II bomber pilot to the cockpit of the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket experimental rocket plane. The book provides detailed historical and technical accuracy and is an easy read due to its wonderful writing and action-packed pace. This story is unique in that Bridgeman had only flown propeller-driven aircraft when he was offered the chance to fly the Skyrocket.

The reader can’t help but feel the suspense as the author is given an extremely short period of time to make the leap from breaking in prop fighters to experimental testing of the first aircraft that exceeded Mach 2. Anyone interested in this period of history will be riveted by Bridgeman’s experiences as he takes part in bombing raids, becomes an airline pilot, falls into production flight testing, and then is chosen as the unlikely candidate to fly one of the most high-performance and challenging aircraft of its era.

—Reviewed by Capt. Gabriel I. Engle (Virgin America)

 

This article was originally published in the January 2017 issue of Air Line Pilot.