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In 1941 at the age of 23, Glen Edwards learned to fly in a wood, fabric, and metal biplane. In 1948 he died in the fiery crash of a Northrop Flying Wing, one of the Air Force's most advanced jet-propelled bombers. As a combat pilot in World War II and as a test pilot during a postwar period of unpredented aeronautical innovation, Edwards was counted among the best of a new generation of military aviators. Conveying both the exhaustion of combat and the exhilaration of flying some of the world's fastest, most sophisticated planes, Edwards's diary conveys the full trajectory of his career: the near-daily bombing missions over North Africa and Italy for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, a record-breaking cross-country flight in the Douglas XB-42 "Mixmaster," a stint at Princeton to study aircraft stability and control, and his role in developing the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing, a precursor of today's B-2 Stealth bomber.