Summary of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff

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Tom Wolfe writes in the book “The Right Stuff” about early jet pilots that demonstrated extreme bravery, and behaviorisms that enabled them to be part of a furtive group of individuals. It has been said that these men usually assemble in groups among themselves in a way that solicited the men to be a part of a privileged membership. It is these pilots with proven courage, and abilities that will go forward testing the next barrier; space.

These tried and tested men have willingly placed themselves in danger day in and day out yearning for the spot up the ladder to the top of the pyramid. It was not just a job for these pilots to break the sound barrier and beyond, but rather an obsession to become the next man at the top:

Tom Wolfe explains that a career in flying was like climbing one of those ancient Babylonian pyramids made up of a dizzy progression of steps and ledges, a ziggurat, a pyramid extraordinary high and steep; and the idea was to prove at every foot of the way up that pyramid that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move hig...

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