Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

This book is a record of the amazing achievements of a relatively small but highly effective defence contractor with a foresight, technological and management skills rarely seen in the world today.

A good peak behind the scenes of the legendary Skunk works.

Mainly all about the F117 nighthawk. A large part about the U2 plane also. I was hoping for a bit more about the SR71 but I guess that is still too secret. What I found really interesting is how it really shows the bad side of government procurement. Sometimes that just need a plane but because of all of the various levels of legislation imposed the price shoots up. When these guys started out it was not like that. They were too patriotic to try to profiteer.

Which Aerospace engineer hasn't heard of Lockheed? Very few probably. We've all heard stories of their super secret projects and huge innovations in the world of aeroplanes and stealth. But what I didn't know is how difficult it was and what made them succeed when others thought it impossible. Although an engineer by trade, the author clearly knows how to put together a good read. The book is neither too technical, nor too dumbed down (for me at least but I'm only a student of engineering) and I found it a page turner from start to finish. Every now and then he may get into a little qualitative detail about why he chose a particular design (for example when he designed the cone shaped variable intakes on the blackbird) but he doesn't fill it up with maths and engineering jargon. A very interesting feature of the Skunk Works is there small numbers and extreme intelligence and passion which the author speaks about at length. Mr Rich explains how these factors allowed them to be the best of the best in military aviation design. You can take his description of the management structure of the Skunk Works and compare and contrast it with today's aerospace companies like Airbus and Boeing and you can see how different it is! Not that military and civil aviation design processes are really comparable, but you can see how such a small close knit team with more freedom from upper management runs into less of the problems that plague the 787 but replace them with security and other such issues. There is plenty about the people Mr Rich worked under, with and against and it is eye opening to see the kind of attitude and passion that makes up the Skunk Works' top engineers had as well as the political hurdles they had to go through. All in all, I would say I am very glad I bought this book. It was a great read and the book was more about the Skunk Works rather than Ben Rich's autobiography.

This is not about just developing secret aircraft, it is picture of human endeavour, of personalities, of movers and shakers and the mentality of organisations. I would recommend this book to a broad spectrum of people, not just those interested in matters aeronautical.

Ben Rich's Skunk Works is a fascinating read, it's thought-provoking, funny, inspiring and thoroughly interesting throughout. The book charts Rich's rise through Lockheed's Skunk Works, from the ground floor to the penthouse suite. The chapters cover many different projects that Rich was involved in throughout his career, some headed by Kelly Johnson (Rich's mentor and a big cheese in aviation) and some headed by Rich himself as Johnson's successor. At times you'll be reading in disbelief, the innovation and ingenuity of the Skunk Works is beyond comprehension. To think that this technology was around many moons ago, veiled in secrecy, makes you wonder what soars above our very heads in the present day. Anyone who has an interest in aviation most probably has this book already, but really I feel that there is a much wider appeal. In reading Skunk Works you'll gain an understanding of Cold War history, and the extreme levels of secrecy it induced, business management, international incidents like the Gary Powers' capture, and of course you'll learn about aviation. But perhaps most importantly, you'll have read an absolute whirlwind of a story, one that'll have you thinking you're reading a fiction in the same vein as The Minority Report, Telling stories of impossible technologies. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone, literally anyone and everyone, except maybe people I don't like, but even then I'd feel like I was robbing them of a mind-blowing read. The fact you're even on this page means at the very least that the cover induced a little interest. And in my mind that pretty much guarantees you'll enjoy reading it. So treat yourself, treat a friend, buy two, you won't regret it.

excellent book

Account of work on spyplanes and drones. What this book tells you about is all pretty impressive stuff technically speaking. But it makes you wonder what they are working on now.

Incredible book. Loved it

A great story on what went on inside the skunk works. A lot of personal stories of day to day life. Very good.

Good

great book, great flawless condition

El libro habla de la historia de los desarrolladores de la tecnologia sigilo , muy bueno y recomendado al cien