This is an exciting new book relating the firsthand experiences of predominantly German Test Pilots. Including over one hundred photographs and illustrations, the majority of which have never been seen before, it is full of refreshingly new material. The collection of anecdotal accounts covers such varied flying tests as those of the Natter, a manned, rocket-launched interceptor designed to release a salvo of missiles at Flying Fortress formations; and the DFS 228, arguably the forerunner of the Lockheed U2, with a service ceiling calculated at eighty thousand feet and a range of nearly a thousand miles. There are also vivid descriptions of the first trials of the ejector seat; towing aircraft on a one metre long rigid tow; the beginnings of air-to-air refuelling, and even the plans for a bomber which would tow its own fighter escort across the Atlantic to engage the USAF over their home ground. Test Pilots is essential reading for all aviation enthusiasts and historians.