In article , rk wrote:
Doing my assigned reading and ran into this one.

I do sometimes have to wonder quite what this assigned reading covers,
but hey ;-)

This will be a NASA History Publication.

summary

Runway to Orbit: Reflections of A NASA Engineer, by Dr. Kenneth Iliff, ushers
the reader through some of the pivotal aerospace projects undertaken by NASA
since the early 1960s. Iliff made critical contributions to research on the
X-15 aircraft, the lifting bodies, the XB-70 bomber, high angle-of-attack
aircraft, and the Space Shuttle, among others. His highly personal and
thoughtful narrative also describes his seminal contributions to parameter
estimation. Runway to Orbit is scheduled for publication in January 2004.

Certainly sounds worth seeking out...

--
-Andrew Gray