Chapter 2, "The Right Stuff" Summary

Wolfe compares the career of an ambitious young fighter pilot to a ziggurat, an ancient Babylonian pyramid with its steps and terraces, with the chosen few, "the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself," at the top. Candidates begin to be "left behind" in military flight training from the start. Some are unable to cope with class work or with basic flight instruction. The real test for Navy pilots, though, is the aircraft carrier landing. An aircraft carrier deck is sixty feet above the water, has no rails, and pitches up or down five or ten feet with each wave, and is slick with hydraulic fluid and jet-fuel. Many pilots do well on their first landing, but once they have actually been on a carrier, some develop medical symptoms that disqualify them for flight. They...