Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

by Robert Coram

request for proposal (RFP) was sent out. In the RFP, Sprey told the contractors they could not respond with the usual two-foot-tall stack of documents. The response had to be limited to thirty pages and confined to pure design—no smoke and mirrors. Even more unprecedented, airplanes from two contractors would be picked and the Air Force would supervise a combat-type fly-off between two flying prototypes. Specifications demanded that the fuel and the engine be in separate parts of the aircraft. Fuel tanks had to be explosion-proof. To make sure this was done, sections of the wing and fuselage would be fired at with Soviet weapons. And, oh yes, this must be done under simulated flight conditions with wind blowing over the prototypes being fired upon. Wright-Pat said no facility existed for such tests and that the resulting explosions would be too dangerous. Sprey told them to take the propeller engine off a World War II B-50, attach it firmly to a solid stand, run up the engine, and let the prop wash go over the fuselage and wings. They did and several years later proudly took credit for what they termed the world’s first ballistic wind tunnel.