Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever - the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft - the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story." Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. And in one of the stories of modern military history, the Air Force fighter pilot taught the U.S. Marine Corps how to fight war on the ground. His ideas led to America's swift and decisive victory in the Gulf War and foretold the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

SYNOPSIS

John Boyd was the greatest fighter pilot in American history. From the proving ground of the Korean War, he went on to win renown as the instructor who defeated every pilot who challenged him in less than 40 seconds. But what made Boyd a man for the ages was what happened after he left the cockpit.

FROM THE CRITICS

Los Angeles Times

Whether or not Secretary Rumsfeld has truly absorbed Sun Tzu's subtle maxims may be open to question, but Robert Coram's engrossing biography, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, should definitely be on the bedside tables of all our current military leadership. Boyd was an Air Force fighter pilot who was never promoted beyond colonel, who wrote next to nothing, imparting his ideas by means of oral briefings, but who is nevertheless considered by many to be the greatest strategic thinker this country has ever produced, "the American Sun Tzu." — Andrew Cockburn

James Schlesinger

The military services should welcome more people like Colonel John Boyd.

Charles Krulak

...an extremely accurate picture of a man whose contributions to the art of war rival those of the greatest military minds...

Publishers Weekly

John Boyd (1927-1997) was a brilliant and blazingly eccentric person. He was a crackerjack jet fighter pilot, a visionary scholar and an innovative military strategist. Among other things, Boyd wrote the first manual on jet aerial combat, was primarily responsible for designing the F-15 and the F-16 jet fighters, was a leading voice in the post-Vietnam War military reform movement and shaped the smashingly successful U.S. military strategy in the Persian Gulf War. His writings and theories on military strategy remain influential today, particularly his concept of the "OODA (Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action) Loop," which all the military services-and many business strategists-use to this day. Boyd also was a brash, combative, iconoclastic man, not above insulting his superiors at the Pentagon (both military and civilian); he made enemies (and fiercely loyal acolytes) everywhere he went. His strange, mercurial personality did not mesh with a military career, making his 24 years in the Air Force (1951-1975) difficult professionally and causing serious emotional problems for Boyd's wife and children. Coram's worthy biography is deeply researched and detailed, down to describing the fine technical points of some of Boyd's theories. A Boyd advocate (he "contributed as much to fighter aviation as any man in the history of the Air Force," Coram notes), Coram does not shy away from Boyd's often self-defeating abrasiveness and the neglect and mistreatment of his long-suffering wife and children, and keeps the story of a unique life moving smoothly and engagingly. (Oct. 30) Forecast: Last year's The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security (Smithsonian) was based on interviews with Boyd, but was more concerned with his ideas and their development than with a full telling of the life. Look for more interest in Boyd should his techniques be on display on CNN. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Profanity-laden, action-filled biography of legendary Air Force pilot, instructor, and aircraft design theorist John Richard "Forty-Second" Boyd. Veteran journalist, novelist, and nonfiction author Coram (Caribbean Time Bomb, 1993, etc.) portrays Boyd as a visionary whose no-quarter-taken pursuit of weapons improvement so infuriated the bureaucrats that he was denied a generalship despite being recognized as a near genius. After two years as an Air Force mechanic, Boyd made his mark as a pilot in Korea and became a legend teaching others to fly, using his unique acrobatics to get on the tail and "hose" a mock enemy fighter in less than 40 seconds, a feat that taxed both pilot and aircraft. The highly inquisitive Boyd persuaded the Air Force to finance his engineering studies at Georgia Tech, where he learned thermodynamics and formulated his revolutionary theory on design factors that would quicken a fighter pilot's ability to get the better of an enemy. Real information (potential and kinetic energy from engine thrust, aircraft lift and drag, g-forces endurable, etc.) replaced conventional reliance on the often-inflated aircraft speed and range claims of bureaucrats who believed that the more complex a weapon, the more gizmos it carried, and the greater its cost, the better. Higher costs meant added layers of command and accelerated promotions for the spear-carriers, who cared far less about actual performance vis-￯﾿ﾽ-vis that of prospective enemies' weapons. But Boyd's graphs of the swept-wing F-111 fighter and the acclaimed B-1 bomber showed that neither could withstand an onslaught from an ordinary MIG fighter. Soon his theories swept the government, the defense industry, and Congress;the crafts he designated "lemons" never saw combat. Nonetheless, Boyd died in poverty as a retired colonel, best remembered by a handful of supporters he called "Acolytes." Required reading for frustrated innovators, aviation buffs, and Horatio Algers intent on improving the world against the best efforts of ever-prevailing deal-busters and naysayers.

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