On the morning of December 22, 1964, at a small, closely guarded
airstrip in the desert town of Palmdale, California, Lockheed test
pilot Bob Gilliland stepped into a strange-looking aircraft and
roared into aviation history. Developed at the super-secret Skunk
Works, the SR-71 Blackbird was a technological marvel. In fact,
more than a half century later, the Mach 3–plus titanium wonder,
designed by Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson, remains the world’s
fastest jet. It took a test pilot with the right combination of
intelligence, skill, and nerve to make the first flight of the
SR-71, and the thirty-eight-year-old Gilliland had spent much of
his life pushing the edge. In Speed, one of America’s greatest
test pilots collaborates with acclaimed journalist Keith Dunnavant
to tell his remarkable story: How he was pushed to excel by his
demanding father. How a lucky envelope at the U.S. Naval Academy
altered the trajectory of his life. How he talked his way into U.S.
Air Force fighters at the dawn of the jet age, despite being told
he was too tall. How he made the conscious decision to trade the
security of the business world for the dangerous life of an
experimental test pilot, including time at the clandestine base
Area 51, working on the Central Intelligence Agency’s Oxcart
program. The narrative focuses most intently on Gilliland’s years
as the chief test pilot of the SR-71, as he played a leading role
in the development of the entire fleet of spy planes while
surviving several emergencies that very nearly ended in disaster.
Waging the Cold War at 85,000 feet, the SR-71 became an unrivaled
intelligence-gathering asset for the U.S. Air Force, invulnerable
to enemy defenses for a quarter century. Gilliland’s work with
the SR-71 defined him, especially after the Cold War, when many of
the secrets began to be revealed and the plane emerged from the
shadows—not just as a tangible museum artifact but as an icon
that burrowed deep into the national consciousness. Like the
Blackbird itself, Speed is a story animated by the power of
ambition and risk-taking during the heady days of the American
Century.
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