[A major share of The Right Stuff] is devoted to unraveling the mystique of the test pilot….
I lived at Edwards [Air Force Base] for four years and, improbable as some of Tom's tales seem, I know he's telling it like it was. He is the first gifted writer to explore the relationship between test pilots and astronauts—the obvious similarities and the subtle differences…. Edwards hotshots knew that the Mercury astronauts were just talking monkeys, sealed in their funny little cans and fired off onto some computerized trajectory, with damned little to do on board except blather about the view, so that the stupid newspapers could quote their stupid inanities—on the stupid front page, no less. It was too much.
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