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Corky Meyer's Flight Journal

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This book is a miracle. The miracle is that the author lived to write it.

'Corky' Meyer joined Grumman in the 1940s when that company was demonstrating its ability to design and build Navy fighters such as the Hellcat and Bearcat (and, later, other types of Naval aircraft and civilian flying boats), and went on to undertake flight test of essentially every significant Grumman fighter from the F-6F-3 Hellcat, the F-8F-1 Bearcat, the twin-engined F7F-1 Tigercat, the jet F-9F-2 Panther, the Navy's first swept-wing fighter--the F-9F-8 Cougar, up to the F11-F Tiger (all Grumman's fighters have been named after cats of various types). He became one of the very few, if not the only civilian pilot ever to achieve 'carquals'--carrier qualifications.

Meyer flew dozens of different aircraft from many countries, and his commentaries are illuminating, including his chapter on "the best fighters of WWII," undertaken for FLIGHT JOURNAL. His conclusions, based significantly on analysis of warfighting results, will be the subject of endless hangar flying by readers of the book.

This book charmingly, humbly but with marvelously tongue-in-cheek humor traces the author's adventures and misadventures over a long and brilliant career in flight test. He and a few dozen other civilian and military test pilots enabled the difficult, painful and often fatal transition from the relatively simple propeller-driven fighter aircraft that endured into the 1950s up to the current complex devices. Many did not survive but gave their lives to flight test, bravely, often in the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

In effect, his experience covers the transition from personal observation by the hands and the seat of the pants to the slide rule to the eventual use of sophisticated measuring systems on the aircraft that morphed eventually into computer-aided simulation and telemetry, as speeds went from subsonic to supersonic, and as materials, structures, systems and procedures placed ever-increasing demands on every aspect of aircraft development from initial design through prototyping into flight test and eventual production. Meyer was never afraid to speak his mind to those around him, sometimes insisting on changes that took a lot of time and effort to undertake but were proved right in the end. His conclusions were sometimes intuitive but were often right. When he was wrong, he said so.

This book reminds me of the similarly marvelous SPITFIRE: A Test Pilot's Story, by Jeffrey Quill (see my review), and it belongs on the bookshelf of every pilot interested in understanding whose shoulders we are truly standing on. Meyer and Quill, brothers in the cockpit, write definitively about some of the most interesting flying ever done.

The book is particularly important for pilots who are interested in naval aviation (every naval aviator will enjoy it) because it makes clear that aircraft development for carrier operation is a very difficult art. It requires not only that the basic characteristics and performance meet the specifications for a fighter aircraft but that it must also be able to withstand the rigors of carrier arrivals (22-feet-per-second descent rate at trap), acceptable approach speeds and stability that makes it suitable for average naval aviators (there is probably no such thing, especially in the eyes of naval aviators).

Problems are always more interesting to read about than cake walks, and Meyer got his fill. He saved his life, and the lives of countless others, through his ability to analyze, decide and act decisively under severe stress. His description, alone, of his flight-test experience of the variable-sweep XF10-F-1 Jaguar and its appalling difficulties (it was a significant contributor to the F-14 Tomcat, technically) is worth the price of the book, but any page you look he describes, often with profound candor, the lot of the test pilot before (and this is crucial in terms of survival) reliable ejection seats were developed.

So the miracle happened. Corky lived to write this fine book. It lacks only an index.

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Disclaimer: early in the development of the book, Corky asked me to help with the editing. He didn't need my help. He writes as well as he flies.

In the very early days of World War II Corky Meyer showed up unexpectedly at Grumman's long island facility and applied for a job as a test pilot. He was hired and remained there until 1978. In those years he flew some 125 different types of military and commercial piston and jet aircraft. For many planes he was the first pilot.

These years saw tremendous changes in the aircraft industry. It was nearing the end of the time of piston engines, when they were reaching their zenith of power and performance. Then came the jets. First they were low powered, unreliable, and there was really no standard idea about how they should be designed.

Over the years, through much development effort, much testing, much failure, and many lives, the fighter jets evolved. Mr. Meyer relates what he did, and what they discovered along the way. Then once in a while he mentions that so-and-so was killed doing this test, or that plane came apart. Twenty years as a test pilot and Mr. Meyer has remarkably few disasters. As he says, a lot of it appears to have been the luck of the draw. He arrived late and someone else took his place in a plane that crashed.

All in all, a fascinating story that's hard to put down.

Corky Meyer's book is just amazing, especially in the current flying environment where pilots can get their checkride without leaving the ground (in a simulator). Corky's flying, along with other test pilots of the time, was literally by the seat of their pants.

I just wanted to share that just 5 years ago this book was published........... and sadly the author, Corky Meyer, died this morning at the age of 91.

Anyone interested in that magical period of aviation when aircraft weren't tested on computers before they took to the air will love this book. It is about the coming of age of Grumman, and of naval aviation, from WWII through the transition into supersonic jets. But it is mostly about a man and his capacity to operate in an environment of extreme circumstances. It is also about that man's incredible luck.

Corky Meyer was a legend in my childhood home. My father worked with Corky from Corky's first days at Grumman. He went on to be superintendent of Grumman's Plant 7, including Flight Test. Many-a-day, Dad would come home with a "Corky Story." Like the time Corky bent the rudder peddles during a test flight!

You can believe what Corky says. He doesn't need to embellish or invent. It all happened, it's all true. No one could make this stuff up.

This man is an ICON he did it all and survived. All test pilots from all services should be required to read this. It is a testamont to his skill and "luck" that he is alive today and has passed on his experiences to all that will listen. Grumman built planes for pilots to survive in as well as fight and their plane building is gone but not forgotten by the Aviation Community. Lift a glass at 1600 and Salute Corky Meyer.

Jim Preston

AF Pilot 65-74

A brilliantly written book by an ex-Grumman test pilot who has a natural storyteller's gift for telling a fascinating story in a gripping way.

Corwin "Corky" Meyer became a test pilot for Grumman during WW2, and continued to help develop a wide range of aircraft during a period of rapid technological change.

How he survived an era of testing which included for each fighter a "terminal speed dive" test which inevitably took the powerful piston engined fighters deep into the sound barrier compressibility zone is a story which is well worth the price of the book itself. Add stories such as blowing off the nose cone of a Panther whilst testing the guns, the Panther that lost its entire rear fuselage when testing the arrester hook system - fortunately on dry land - and the saga of the experimental swing-wing XF10F-1 Jaguar (a classic case of a new engine in a new airframe resulting in a series of near-disasters).

I can't recommend this book too highly, and in fact anything written by this amazing survivor of a remarkable period of technological progress in aviation, which cost many lives of heroic test pilots.

I found this book such a stimulating read that I have (so far) bought two, as I think that the first copy, which I have lent out, will be of such interest that I may not get it back!

David Smith

In 1942 with only a few hundred hours of flying in low performance aircraft Corky Meyer had the audacity to apply for a test pilot slot at Grumman. Why Grumman, because everyone else had turned him down.

By way of comparison a test pilot hoping to find employment at Grumman or Lockheed today would probably have three thousand hours of high performance jet time, an undergrad or masters in engineering and would have graduated at or near the top of his class at the AF or Navy test pilot schools. However, Corky's arrival at Grumman was at the build up to WW2.

The book continues with Meyer's fantastic experiences during and after WW2, testing not only the Grumman aircraft but virtually all of the top us fighters plus the Zero and ME 109. During WW2 the high performance fighters began to approach the sonic range where forces took over control of the aircraft. Forces that the engineers were just beginning to understand. Meyer was literally at the cutting edge of technology; but in this case the cutting edge was the executioner's sword in too many cases.

I will not spoil the story with the tale of the engineer's fix for the Bearcat as it entered this range but suffice to say that the words " we have an idea" from engineers are the most feared words to the test pilot. Given the times and the need to advance the technology at a pace we could not imagine today test pilots were pretty much expendable. However, it is to Grumman's credit that they lost very few pilots in this period.

Meyer continues into the beginning of the Cold War and then Korea when the race to develop and deploy new designs was just as frantic as that in WW2. He chronicles the early age of jet fighters and the many trials and challenges.

For those with an appreciation and love of the magnificent fighter aircraft of WW2 or the early jet age this book is required reading. Not to be missed.

I first met Corky a year ago when composing a free lance article for a local New York Times magazine publication. Without a doubt, he is an interesting individual, with unique talents and adventures so vividly expressed throughout this book. He dramatically lays out his life's love of flying and, the reader will capiture the essence of just how his personality and manner of expression undoubtedly guided Grumman throughout its hayday years. Anyone possessing the least interest in aviation and such an important phase of American history, should reward themselves by reading Corky's Flight Journal

My father flew with Corky as a crew chief checking out TBFs for navy acceptance. He said he was a great guy and the book shows how true that is.