Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown wrote the first book listed by the OP!
How about form the perspective of the other side?
Hans Ulrich Rudel who flew 2500 combat missions
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stuka-Pilot-Hans-Ulrich-Rudel/dp/1908476877
Or Erich Hartmann the highest scoring ace ever with 352 kills
SERIOUSLY!!!!! No one? Not a single person heard of Winkle Brown?
I'll get my coat.
SERIOUSLY!!!!! No one? Not a single person heard of Winkle Brown?
I’ll get my coat.
I would - you've clearly not read the op or the title of the Sainted Eric's autobiog
Another vote for First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, a cracking read that I couldn't put down last week. His recent passing made me pick it up.
On a more helpful note
War in a Stringbag - Charles Lamb
Couple more for WWI, they were effectively test pilots.
Winged Victory - VM Yeates fiction but based on his experiences
Flying Fury - James McCudden
Not directly about test pilots, but connected with the SR-71 Blackbird ‘Skunk Works’ is an excellent read, covers the secret work carried out by Lockheed from the end of the war onwards.
"Going Solo" by Roald Dahl.
Starts with him traveling to Africa in 1938 to work for Shell, joining the RAF in 1939 and learning to fly Tiger Moths in Kenya, then Gloucester Gladiators before moving onto, well, actually being thrown pretty much into the deep end, flying Hurricanes in combat in Greece...
Some good shouts but Chickenhawk deserves another one - some of the descriptions of helicopter extractions of GIs under heavy fire in Vietnam are spine tingling
I can recommend Enemy Coast Ahead by Guy Gibson, the Dambusters Squadron Leader. I think he was ordered to write it as a means for him to have a break from active service.
I've read quite a few of those already recommended and just can't over how young they all are.
Mentioned above but another fan of Vulcan 607 here - an amazing tale
Chickenhawk +1
I flew for the Fuhrer by Heinz Knocke - a Luftwaffe pilot that flew against American heavies in defense of the Reich - interesting read something from the other side.
+1 War in a Stringbag and The Big Show
I flew for the Fuhrer
Ah yes, that's on the book shelf too- can't remember what I thought if it, it's been years
Another for Riding Rockets - moving to the point of actual tears in his description of the death of the Challenger astronauts and how, despite fully knowing that the shuttle could kill him, the author simply couldn't turn down a flight in it, and went on to fly 4 times, and each time, his description of trying to hide his fear during the (long) count down sequence is gripping.
A quick look on my kindle also shows:
A Bucket of sunshine by Mike Brooke, of his time flying nuclear armed canberra's during the 1960's
19 minutes to live by Lew jennings - appache gunship pilot in Vietnam
Black Cat 21 by Bob Ford - Huey helicopter gunship pilot in vietnam
F-4 Phantom by Robert Priest - an absolute aviation classic, beautifully written on flying the interceptor during the cold war
Donald Auten’s Roger Ball! Is a good one about US Naval aviation, the service introduction of The F-14, and the development of Top Gun.
And +1 for Robert Prest’s F-4 a Phantom Pilot
If you're interested in F4s then I recommend One Day in a Long War by Jeffrey Ethel and Alfred Price - product of a lot of research into the first day of Operation Linebacker that took place on 10th May 1972 and includes great first person accounts including a number who were products of the Top Gun training programme (program).
And, for another view from the other side in WW2, Spitfire on My Tail by Ulrich Steinhilper gives great account of 109 combat in the Battle of Britain, including a damning professional opinion of Galland with whom he served in 1940. Quite a lot of it is about his experience as PoW though in Canada.
And surprised no one has mentioned Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey unless I missed it. Written while he was recovering from a 20mm cannon shell in the neck in 1941 it's pretty much the definitive fighter pilot account written during the war.
Couple of obscure ones-
Pierre Clostermann- Flames in the Sky
Ira Jones- Tiger Squadron
Oh, and Cecil Rwnsley and Robert Wright- Night Fighter
The man in the hot seat - Doddy Haye. Its years since I read it but I remember enjoying it - its the biography of the test pilot for ejector seats
I'm going to have to "-1" Vulcan 607, while the story itself is quite entertaining, the writing is far too breathless and Boy's Own.
I don't think it's been mentioned, but I enjoyed Starman, the biography of Yuri Gagarin. Obviously not planes exactly but close enough 🙂
