Document created: 1 March 06
Air & Space Power Journal - Spring 2006
The Smell of Kerosene: A Test Pilot’s Odyssey by Donald L. Mallick with Peter W. Merlin. NASA History Office (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/history.html), 300 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20546, 2003, 252 pages, $22.00 (hardcover).
Test pilots have a special place in the aviation hierarchy. They are the best of the best—at the top of the pyramid, as this memoir explains. Along the way, however, The Smell of Kerosene makes clear that the job involves not only glamour but also hard work, long training, and considerable danger.
Although Donald Mallick idolized his older brother, who flew B-24s in the
Eighth Air Force during World War II, he joined the Navy after two years of
college because he was too young to get into the Air Force. Pinning on his
wings and bars in 1952, he went on to fly F2H-2 Banshees off carriers. After
leaving active duty in 1954 and earning his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical
engineering, he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA),
predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in
1957 as a test pilot at Langley AFB,
Mallick had a long, diverse career that did not include flying aircraft on their initial or record-breaking flights. Instead, he flew the “wringing out” flights, the technical tests, gathering information needed to enhance aircraft performance and safety and to advance aeronautical science. At Langley (1957–63), for example, he flew stability-and-handling research tests with five different types of helicopters; qualitative evaluation of vertical and/or short takeoff and landing aircraft (XZ-2) and the F11F-1; developmental tests of a “g”-limiter system on the F2H-1; aircraft structural dynamics and flutter tests on the F-86D; quantitative and qualitative evaluation of flight controls on the F9F-2; variable-stability flying qualities on the F-100C; sonic-boom tests on the F8U-3; and support, executive, and photo chase in six different aircraft types—all of that in only his first five years on the job! During his career, Mallick flew a vast array of aircraft (125 types): subsonic (B-52 and B-57) and supersonic (B-58 and B-70) bombers; fighters, including the F-104, F-106, F-111, F-15, and F-8; transports; trainers; civil aircraft; helicopters; sailplanes; the Bell Lunar Landing Research Vehicle; the NASA Lifting Body; and the U-2 and SR-71. He offers readers a taste of all of these efforts.
The strength of this book lies in its breadth. Mallick gives a good account of his pilot training and his experience flying off carriers. Additionally, he writes of his training in test-flying and the tedium of this work, not just the excitement and danger. Regarding the descriptions of the various aircraft he flew, I found his coverage of the B-70 and F8U-3 particularly well done. A few small concerns: he seems somewhat uncritical of the aircraft he flew since he has few negative comments, and although he mentions all the pilots with whom he flew, we learn little about them. Mallick does discuss the deaths and accidents associated with his line of work. (He had but one major aircraft accident in his career, walking away from a helicopter crash with injury only to his pride.) Profusely illustrated, The Smell of Kerosene is fine reading for people interested in aircraft and test-flying in the second half of the twentieth century.
Dr. Kenneth P. Werrell
Christiansburg,
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