Boyd

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram, Back Bay Books, 2004. 

Polymath Maverick

John Boyd was a pilot, an engineer, a mathematician, a tactician and a maverick. Boyd was slow in getting promoted, because he was too outspoken. His ideas had a substantial impact on aircraft design, although the F-15 and F-16 fighter jets that he helped design were compromised with bells and whistles that reduced Boyd’s primary goal of maneuverability. Boyd favored optimizing an aircraft’s design for a single role, not multiple roles. Boyd favored lighter aircraft to improve maneuverability. Boyd’s opponents had other goals: longer range, faster speed, higher altitudes, more powerful radar, more weapon systems, all of which added weight and reduced maneuverability.