How to Keep a Plane in the Sky: Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test Engineering
By: Alex Davies
*
‘Eye-opening and quirky … compelling.’ Independent Non-Fiction Book of the Month
Rocket sleds. Chicken cannons. Artificial lightning.
Welcome to the fantastical world of test engineering.
‘Wildly entertaining and surprisingly profound.’ Guru Madhavan, author of Wicked Problems
________
When we sit in an aeroplane, we trust that everything will work properly, that we will lift smoothly into the sky and touch down safely at our destination.
What we don’t generally consider is the wild, unseen world of test engineering that makes all this possible: the hidden heroes who bend plane wings, zap them with artificial lightning and repeatedly smash their tires into the ground until they reach breaking point.
Such outlandish experiments shape the products we use each and every day, from ‘childproof’ bottle caps to the cars we drive and the bridges we cross. They underpin our trust in the objects that we generally expect to work as anticipated and not (unexpectedly) crack, blow up or spontaneously collapse.
As Alex Davies reveals, this amazing reliability is thanks to the mostly invisible, maniacal, yet methodical work of test engineers, who divine how everything and anything could go wrong and then plan for it in advance – using rocket sleds, chicken cannons, bear testers and any means necessary.
Uncovering the surprisingly profound science behind the small print on the label, How to Keep a Plane in the Sky is a riotously entertaining must-read for fans of Humble Pi by Matt Parker; This Way Up by The Map Men, and Randall Munroe.
___
‘Things fall apart . . . but Alex Davies tells the story of the people who pick up the pieces, subject them to rigorous testing, and rebuild the world.’ Adam Rogers, author of Full Spectrum
‘I can’t remember the last book I devoured this quickly.’ PJ Vogt, host of the Search Engine podcast
-
- -
‘Wildly entertaining and surprisingly profound.’
- Guru Madhavan, author of Wicked Problems -
‘Things fall apart . . . but Alex Davies tells the story of the people who pick up the pieces, subject them to rigorous testing, and rebuild the world.’
- Adam Rogers, author of Full Spectrum -
‘Engaging, witty, and deeply insightful’
- Roma Agrawal, author of Nuts and Bolts -
‘A relentlessly entertaining and engaging dive into the hidden world of those working to keep the world moving. From radioactive tea leaves to the threats posed by bearded seals to aircraft, this book is crammed with so many interesting nuggets that you’ll never take modern conveniences for granted again.’
- Edward Brooke-Hitching, The Most Interesting Book in the World -
‘Highly entertaining.’
- Janelle Shane, author of You Look Like a Thing and I Love You -
‘I can’t remember the last book I devoured this quickly, or the last writer whose company I enjoyed this much.’
- PJ Vogt, host of the Search Engine podcast -
‘In How to Keep a Plane in the Sky, technology journalist Alex Davies looks at the hidden dangers of the stuff we use everyday – and how we owe the (mostly) remarkable reliability of products to the hidden, obsessive yet methodical work of very smart test engineers. A book about test engineering runs the risk of being dry, but Davies fills his account with eye-opening and quirky examples of successes and failures … Davies’s writing is technical yet accessible and he is good on minutiae … compelling.’
- Independent Non-Fiction Book of the Month -
‘Vivid and disarming…. Davies makes a compelling case that test engineering—unglamorous, and largely invisible—is among the most consequential contributions to public safety and consumer trust that modern society has produced. [How to Keep a Plane in the Sky] is an entertaining, informative, and occasionally sprawling celebration of that work—and of the people, and bears, who do it.’
- Science -
‘Quirky … Test engineering isn’t perfect, but it’s heartening to read the success stories.’
- Mail on Sunday