"In the mid-1950s a small group of overworked, underpaid scientists and engineers on a remote base in the Mojave Desert developed a weapon no one had asked for but everyone was looking for. This is the story of how that unorthodox team, led by visionary Bill McLean, overcame navy bureaucracy and other more heavily funded projects to develop the world's best air-to-air missile.

Author Ron Westrum examines that special time and place - when the old American work ethic and "can do" spirit were a vital part of U.S. weapons development - to discover how the dedicated team was able to create a simple and inexpensive missile. Today, some forty-four years after its invention, Sidewinder is still considered the best America has."--BOOK JACKET.