The Smell of Kerosene: Pilot's "Day at the Office" (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Flight Test Memoirs of Experimental Aircraft, Supersonic Risk, and Apollo-Era TrainingBy National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Donald L. Mallick, Peter W. Merlin
Length11h 32m
About this audiobook
The Smell of Kerosene: Pilot's "Day at the Office" gathers the experiential literature of flight testing into a vivid account of aviation as labor, risk, experiment, and disciplined imagination. Moving between memoir, technical recollection, institutional history, and adventure narrative, the volume situates the pilot's cockpit within the broader literary context of twentieth-century aerospace writing, where personal testimony and scientific documentation meet. Its standout moments lie in its precise evocations of aircraft, procedure, danger, and the sensory world of powered flight. Created through the collaboration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration with Donald L. Mallick and Peter W. Merlin, the book reflects the collective culture of experimental aviation: engineers, pilots, researchers, and historians working within the Cold War and postwar expansion of aeronautical knowledge. These voices align the volume with NASA's tradition of public history, preserving the lived experience behind technological progress and illuminating the human judgment embedded in complex machines. Readers interested in aviation, space history, engineering culture, or memoir will find here a compact but richly instructive work. The book offers a rare opportunity to encounter flight test not as abstraction, but as a demanding profession shaped by courage, calculation, and institutional memory.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.4 (22)
Includes LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreOther, Literary Classics
Length11 hrs 32 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 14, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Smell of Kerosene: Pilot's "Day at the Office" (Annotated)
2The Smell of Kerosene: Pilot's “Day at the Office”
3Dedication
4Prologue Mach 3+
5Acknowledgements
Show all chaptersShow less
61 Wings of Gold
72 Naval Air Operations
83 NACA and NASA – Langley, Virginia
94 Jet Research at Langley
105 Super Crusader
116 High Desert Flight Research – Edwards, California
127 The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
138 Flying the Heavies
149 Triple-Sonic Blackbird
1510 A Time of Transition
1611 Shifting Gears
17Epilogue
18Appendix A
19Appendix B
20Appendix C
21Memorable Quotes
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