Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot Hardcover - 1998

The fascinating diary of the WWII bomber and postwar test pilot (after whom Edwards Air Force Base was named) placed into context by Ford, a contributing editor at Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine. Although many WWII memoirs have appeared in recent years, Edwards's rises above the rest with his honest and captivating accounts of daily life for a combat pilot in Africa. Also excellent is Ford's commentary: He gives non-flying readers all the necessary technical information without attempting a course in aeronautical engineering. Edwards's training and combat career are interesting, but less colorful than his indoctrination into the first ranks of the armys test pilots (this in the days before the Air Force was formed). His accounts of jumping into any plane he could get near, and of hopping through the country in search of beautiful women, sometimes, even, Hollywood starlets, offer a unique perspective on the world just after the war, when multitudes of young men returned from overseas and the military pilot was just as much a symbol of glamour as the movie idol. Edwards himself was assigned soon enough to head the test program on the radical and ill-fated Northrop Flying Wing Bomber (he would be killed during testing).While at work on that, he contributed important findings to aircraft research and helped to change the position of test pilot from one offered to any skilled pilot to that of a highly trained scientist. Edwards's own words are skillfully interwoven with Ford's, offering a richly detailed account of postwar aviation and the infant years of the military-industrial complex. (photos, not seen) (From Kirkus Reviews; Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.)

Ford [has] a splendid writing style and understands the modern Air Force. Reading his book is a real treat. (Military Review, 1999)

Highly recommended. (Today's Library, 1999)

A fascinating tale and a tribute to an unassuming man who simply loved to fly. (Air&Space/Smithsonian, 1999)

Daniel Ford has spent a lifetime reading and writing about the wars of the past hundred years, from the Irish rebellion of 1916 to the counter-guerrilla operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is best known for his history of the American Volunteer Group--the 'Flying Tigers' of the Second World War--and his Vietnam novel that was filmed as Go Tell the Spartans, starring Burt Lancaster. Most recently, he has turned to the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Germany and Soviet Russia. Most of his books and many shorter pieces are available for Amazon's Kindle ebook reader. He lives and works in New Hampshire.