Synopses & Reviews
Hand-picked, pressure-tested, and full of astronaut gung ho, the young pilots of
Eye of the Viper are poised for the toughest assignment of their career: the exhaustive six-month training course at Arizona's Luke Air Force Base, at a cost of $2 million each. Luke, the world's largest fighter wing, is the only F-16 fighter training base in the United States, and each year it produces one thousand pilots who will fly the F-16 from Korea to Afghanistan to Iraq.
But being among the elite pilots who are selected for the course is by no means a guarantee that they will earn the right to fly the F-16, perhaps the most agile jet fighter ever sent into combat. Only a few select individuals will have what it takes.
Award-winning journalist Peter Aleshire, given unprecedented access to the pilots and teachers at Luke, provides a full blast of the rigors and intensity of the course--the personalities, the incredible machines, the irreverence, the bravado, and the toughness, not only of the hand-picked students seeking a place in the warrior subculture, but of the veteran pilots who must teach them how to stay alive.
Readers will quickly come to understand the extraordinary mental and physical demands on a modern pilot--and the incredible joy and sense of freedom that makes most F-16 pilots describe their single-engine, weapons-laden, needle-nosed jet in terms that sound more like true love or helpless addiction than a relationship with a mere airplane.
Eye of the Viper is a frank, ambitious, eminently entertaining look at the ambitions, fears, frailties, and courage that make or break the young pilots at the exquisitely sensitive controls of a $35-million jet.
Review
". . . allows readers to experience the fascination and the fear of being an F-16 fighter pilot."--
Publisher's WeeklyReview
"The historian and investigative reporter takes readers into the elite world of the F-16 fighter pilot, illuminating the rigorous six-month training process that prepares a select group of young people to fly this sophisticated aircraft." --
ForecastSynopsis
Hand-picked, pressure-tested, and full of astronaut gung ho, the young pilots of Eye of the Viper are poised for the toughest assignment of their careers: the exhaustive six-month training course at Arizona's Luke Air Force Base, at a cost of $2 million each. Luke, the world's largest fighter wing, is the only F-16 fighter training base in the United States, and each year it produces one thousand pilots who will fly the F-16 in places like Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
But being among the elite pilots who are selected for the course is by no means a guarantee that they will earn the right to fly the F-16, perhaps the most agile jet fighter ever sent into combat. Only a few select individuals will have what it takes.
Award-winning journalist Peter Aleshire, having been given unprecedented access to the pilots and teachers at Luke, provides a full blast of the rigors and intensity of the course-the personalities, the incredible machines, the irreverence, the bravado, and the toughness, not only of the hand-picked students seeking a place in the warrior subculture, but of the veteran pilots who must teach them how to stay alive.
About the Author
Peter Aleshire is an accomplished historian and investigative writer who has published four books on the history of the Apache Wars. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.