Test Pilot

Garden City: Doubleday Doran, 1935. First Edition. Hardcover. Good/no jacket. Shelf wear to tips, corners, and edges of the book,; no jacket; spine sunned but legible, covers rubbed, offsetting to the endpapers, pictures of Collins (probably from a magazine) taped to the front endpaper, previous owner's name, else clean and unmarked. First edition stated no others noted. Collins was test pilot, primarily for the Navy. His career ended in 1935 at the age of 31 while testing a Grumann F3F the last biplane fighter. "The prototype, BuNo. 9727, was delivered and first flown on 20 March 1935 with company test pilot Jimmy Collins making three flights that day. Two days later, six dive-recovery flights took place; on the 10th, the aircraft's pullout at 8,000 ft (2,438 m) registered 14 g on the test equipment. The aircraft broke up in midair, crashing in a cemetery and killing Collins."--Wikipedia. In the book Collins provides a chilling description of the death he expected to suffer. William Faulkner wrote about Collins in a review of the book for American Mercury magazine in November, 1935. Every effort is made to ship all books and other items within 24 hours. Clean recycled packing material will be used when possible. The Book Shed has a been a member of the Vermont Antiquarian Bookseller's Association since 1997. An online bookseller with a bookshop sensibility!