Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Jackie L. "Jack"
Ridley was a colonel in the United States Air Force and a noted test
pilot who worked with Chuck Yeager. Ridley received his Bachelor of
Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in
1939 and his Master's degree in aerospace engineering from the
California Institute of Technology in 1945. Having served in the army
before graduate school, he was assigned to the Flight Test Division at
Wright Field and attended Experimental Test Pilot School from January
through May 1946. Ridley was then assigned to the XS-1 project as a test
pilot and project officer at Muroc Army Air Field, where he remained
until May 1948. Fifteen months later, he was permanently assigned as
chief of the Flight Test Engineering Laboratory at Edwards Air Force
Base. Jack Ridley was born in Garvin, Oklahoma, not long after the
aeroplane had made its first hesitant appearance on the world's stage
