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Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed Kindle Edition

by Leo Janos (Author), Ben R. Rich (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 3,693 ratings

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This classic history of America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies is "a gripping technothriller in which the technology is real" (New York Times Book Review).

From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. Here are up-close portraits of the maverick band of scientists and engineers who made the Skunk Works so renowned. Filled with telling personal anecdotes and high adventure, with narratives from the CIA and from Air Force pilots who flew the many classified, risky missions, this book is a riveting portrait of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the twentieth century.

"Thoroughly engrossing." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

Print length

418 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Little, Brown and Company
Publication date

February 26, 2013
File size

8032 KB
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

Eighty percent efficiency would get the job done, so why strain resources and bust deadlines to achieve that extra 20 percent, which would cost as much as 50 percent more in overtime and delays and have little real impact on the overall performance of the aircraft itself?
Highlighted by 500 Kindle readers
Self-checking was a Skunk Works concept now in wide use in Japanese industry and called by them Total Quality Management.
Highlighted by 500 Kindle readers
The rule of thumb in the aerospace business was the more you build, the better you get at it. Our view was that efficiency was mostly the result of quality training, careful inspection, supervision, and high worker motivation.
Highlighted by 398 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lockheed's Advanced Development Project has set standards for the aerospace industry for half a century. Under its presiding genius, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, the Skunk Works produced America's first jet fighter, the world's most successful spy plane (U-2), the first three-times-the-speed-of-sound surveillance aircraft and the F-117A stealth fighter. Rich was Johnson's right-hand man and succeeded him as director in 1975, retiring in 1990. In an entertaining style, the authors describe Johnson's tyrannical managerial style, his thorny but productive relationship with the Air Force and the stealth-technology breakthrough that revolutionized military aviation. Writing with freelancer Jonas, Rich also recounts Skunk Works' failures, including experiments with liquid hydrogen as a propellant and spy-drone flights over China's remote nuclear test facilities. He has much to say about the Defense Department bureaucracy and warns, "Everyone in the defense industry knows that bureaucratic regulations, controls, and paperwork are at critical mass... and... in danger of destroying the entire system." This is a significant book for those interested in aerospace research and development. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Since its inception in 1943, the Skunk Works has been one of the most top-secret military contractors. Now that the Cold War has ended, its story is uncloaked by former chief Rich, now retired. Using a small number of expert employees, the Skunk Works built technologically advanced aircraft that were disavowed by the government and its users, the Air Force and the CIA, for years after the aircraft were operational. The Skunk Works built notable planes such as the P-80 (the first operational jet fighter), U-2 (the high-altitude spy plane), and F-117A (the Stealth fighter). The story of Stealth's development is most interesting not only in the design, building, and testing but also in its origina in a Russian scientist's paper on aeronautics. There are first-person accounts of some of the missions flown by pilots and notes from many government officials. Highly recommended.
William A. McIntyre, New Hampshire Technical Coll. Lib., Nashua
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The U-2, the stealth fighter, and the Blackbird are all products of Lockheed, or, more specifically, the company's Skunk Works--probably the first example of corporate TQM in the U.S. Rich, the second executive to head this highly classified aerospace division, now recounts tales of his predecessor, Kelly Johnson, including employees' eccentricities and the perils and pleasures of working for the U.S. military establishment. Even for those not fascinated with aerospace, the building of these planes is intriguing as he details the secret missions and machinations of the CIA, Operation Desert Storm, and the like. Written in a down-home style and interspersed with "other voices" ranging from test pilots to Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Barbara Jacobs

From Kirkus Reviews

A top-flight aerospace engineer's engrossing reminiscences of an eventful career in the service of the CIA and US military at the height of the Cold War. With a graceful assist from Janos (co-author of Chuck Yeager's best-selling 1985 autobiography, not reviewed), Rich offers an episodic (probably vetted) account of his nearly 40 years with Lockheed's Advanced Development Projects, an ultrasecret operation better known as the Skunk Works (a name borrowed from the Dogpatch still in Al Capp's ``L'il Abner'' comic strip). During his apprenticeship, the author (who headed ADP from 1975 until his retirement at 65 in 1990) helped design, build, test, and launch the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird, America's enviably successful spy planes. On his watch, the Skunk Works produced the first jet fighter-bomber to employ stealth technology, the oddly configured F-117A, which earned its wings in the unfriendly skies above the Persian Gulf. In addition to Rich's own recital, the text includes commentary from colleagues, intelligence agents, Pentagon brass, test pilots, and others, which puts the narrator's knack for advancing the state of the aerospace art into clearer perspective. While he accentuates the positive, the author does not shy from recalling certain of his unit's turkeys, including a remote- controlled reconnaissance drone that seldom returned from missions over enemy territory; an aircraft fueled by liquid hydrogen (whose explosive power could have blown its users to bits); and a stealth picket ship (eventually sunk by the Navy's missile frigate lobby). Nor does Rich fail to settle old scores with, among others, pols more concerned with their next election than national security. Not one to hold a grudge, however, he closes with some uncommonly sensible suggestions on how US taxpayers could get more bang for their procurement buck in the parlous times ahead. An insider's accessible, informative take on what's needed to get futuristic hardware to contemporary flight lines and launching pads. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"Dynamite -- the true story of one of America's crown jewels." ―Tom Clancy

"Thoroughly engrossing."―Los Angeles Times

From the Back Cover

Skunk Works is the true story, told for the first time, of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the story of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a high-stakes drama of cold war confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds.

About the Author

Ben Rich headed the Skunk Works from 1975 until he retired in 1991. He died in 1995. Leo Janus is the author of Yeager, the acclaimed bestselling autobiography of test pilot Chuck Yeager.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00A2DIW3C
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (February 26, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 26, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 8032 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 418 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #53,326 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #6 in Aeronautics & Astronautics (Kindle Store)
- #7 in Business Infrastructure
- #10 in Military Aviation History (Kindle Store)

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Gordon C

Very interesting history

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2024

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Great story about a powerhouse of American ingenituy - the story provides a lot of details and insight into a world you don’t normally get to see.

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William C Ruediger

An Important Part of Military History

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2024

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This is another "surprise " book that exceeded my expectations. The people that worked at the"Skunk Works" at Lockheed were motivated, ingenious and exactly the right people at the right time for the job. This small group helped maintain our countries military advantage. Wonder if such an arrangement could even be possible now with all the regulations and oversights that would be required? Not to mention the diversity aspects (looks like a bunch of white "guys". We all owe the people that worked on these projects a huge measure of gratitude. It's a great story - and a story not well know outside a few in the military. Highly recommended for those that have an interest in military history.

4 people found this helpful

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maelje

Extraordinary story; great writing that could've been even better

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2012

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This is a phenomenal book, and I want to stress that the few criticisms I'm going to offer should not dissuade people from picking this up and reading it. With help from co-writer Leo Janos, Ben Rich has written a fascinating account of one of the most secretive and successful "black projects" outfits in American military history.

Lockheed's "Skunk Works" was responsible for developing the P-38, but its real fame began to build as it concentrated on spy planes during the Cold War, specifically the U2 and the SR-71 Blackbird. Rich's account of the conception, construction and deployment of these two iconic aircraft is absolutely ... well, pun intended here ... RIVETING. The narrative is exciting; how could it not be? Here you had a secretive division of a major aeronautical contractor working on planes that would change the course of world history, and this division was facing deadlines, problems with materials, difficulties in coming up with new construction methods, and on and on. The Blackbird's use of titanium alone proved a major engineering hurdle, given how difficult that metal is to work with, but Skunk Works pulled it off...and the Blackbird remains the FASTEST air-breathing aircraft ever constructed, years after its retirement!

Two brief criticisms: One, the "other voices" interludes sometimes break up the narrative flow a bit too much. But Rich being what he was -- the second leader of a highly complex organization -- would naturally feel drawn to this kind of structure, in which value is placed on multiple viewpoints. Two, and I can't believe I'm writing this: Most books, if length is a problem, suffer from being too long. With "Skunk Works," I was hoping it would last even longer. Again, though, the book's concision is indicative of its author's personality; Rich was a "get it done" kind of guy who belied the image of a greedy contractor stretching out a project for as long as possible. Skunk Works prided itself on making or even beating deadlines, and thus Rich the author wasn't going to write a bloated book.

This is just a terrific read, especially for anyone interested in how successful organizations of any kind work, how America truly did win the Cold War, and how complexity challenges people with creative minds.

16 people found this helpful

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Phillip

A truly innovative and well executed work.

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2024

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Like my title says, this book has all of the elements of a great spy story and some of the elements of an interesting espionage report.

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Gary Wood

Great Read with Fascinating Insights

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024

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Growing up in Alhambra in the 60s & 70s plus serving at Beale and SAC locations, there were many familiar names and events. I served under a few and many of the presidents. Also, as a history buff surrounding our federalist republic, I learned a lot about root causes for today's challenges. Many highlights and notes are now set for further action. as Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." I'm thankful for Ben Rich leaving this to discover.

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Nathaniel Bush

Great book on the history of the Skunk Works

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2018

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The author of the book,Ben Rich led the Skunk Works design team after Clarence Kelly Johnson retired in 1975. Ben talks about the development of Have Blue which would later become the F-117 Nighthawk or the Stealth Fighter. The book also talks about the U-2 spy plane and its being shot down over the Soviet Union. It also tells how Clarence Kelly Johnson gave Francis Gary Powers, the pilot shot down in the U-2 incident, a job at Lockheed working on the U-2, which Powers accepted. The next plane that is talked about in length is the famous SR-71 Blackbird and its development. To date, the SR-71 is the only air breathing jet plane to have flown at Mach 3 speeds. Sure,the X-15 was faster but the X-15 used rocket propulsion instead of jet power The D-21 drone is also talked about briefly. The D-21 was a drone built by Lockheed to be launched from a modified A-12 but this was scrapped after one of the drones collided with the mothership M-21 at launch, causing the loss of the drone, aircraft, and one of the two crew. The project was later revived and the D-21 would be launched from B-52 bombers but it was cancelled again because of lack of success as no drones were recovered with their photographs. The book talks briefly about the Sea Shadow. The Sea Shadow was a ship built by Lockheed to determine how to develop stealth for a ship. The book has events in Ben's life like the passing of Kelly Johnson as well as the passing of Ben's wife Faye. Ben Rich died in 1995 of cancer but the Skunk Works still lives on today. This book is a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone who is curious about the Skunk Works, its people and the aircraft it created

16 people found this helpful

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Amazon Shopper

Business book on how to remain relevant

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2023

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"Skunk Works" is not just a chronicle of the history of advanced aircraft development but a masterclass in innovation, leadership, and adaptability. The book delves deep into the behind-the-scenes operations of the secret Lockheed division responsible for producing some of the most groundbreaking aircraft in history, like the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird. What makes it a standout business book is its emphasis on the importance of a lean management structure, the need for a culture that encourages risk-taking, and the value of empowering talented individuals. By showcasing how Skunk Works managed to stay ahead of the curve despite bureaucratic and budgetary challenges, the book offers invaluable lessons for businesses aiming to remain relevant in an ever-evolving market. It's a testament to the idea that with the right culture and leadership, innovation can thrive even in the most challenging environments.

5 people found this helpful

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