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| Skunk Works |  | Authors: Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos
Publisher: Sphere
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £6.99
as of 9/9/2010 20:09 CDT details
You Save: £3.00 (30%)
New (19) Used (11) from £1.64
Rating:  10 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 404
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0751515035
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9780751515039
Publication Date: August 10, 1995
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Product Description
The true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. The former head of Lockheed's Skunk Works recounts a drama of Cold War confrontation and Gulf War air combat. The book tells the story of secret aircraft from the U-2 to the Stealth Fighter.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
Rivetting insight into military aviation July 16, 2010
Finger on the button (Australia)
Ben Rich describes his time at the Skunk Works, Lockheed's facility for designing and producing high performance, specialised military planes. He starts with the development of the stealth fighter, the first major project he took on after taking the reigns from the legendary Clarence "Kelly" Johnston. The technology behind the planes is described in plain language as is how the project came about and the development of the idea to a successful plane.
After this he returns to how he joined Skunk Works and other projects the Skunk Works handled, such as the U2 spy plane and the SR-71 Blackbird. These are fascinating as each of them was dealing with creating something on the edge of our technological capabilities with many difficult challenges to overcome. In explaining the operation of the Skunk Works Ben gives a passing insight as to why they were successful and able to achieve so much. It doesn't quite go so far as explaining how to set-up a similar operation rather gives pointers to areas to consider. Also described are the politics and current events of the time which place developments in perspective. It also gives background information and analysis about well known events, such as the shooting down of the first U2 plane. Throughout the book there are contributions by others involved in the project; test pilots, air force commanders, politicians and other Skunk workers.
I'd recommend this book to anyone with a passing interest in aviation or people who like a well written account of working in an innovative area pushing technology to the limits.
A lost age... May 30, 2010
Mr. R. Willis (England)
What shines out from this book is the towering figure of Kelly Johnson, the long time boss at Lockheed's Skunk Works. He seems to have come from the same mould as I K Brunel or Joseph Bazalgette, men who had immense vision, engineering knowledge and insight, determination and a personality which can overcome all obstacles put in their way by politicians and other non productive people.
The Skunk Works and Kelly Johnson were inextricably linked and it is not clear to me whether, in this age of Health and Safety and Political micro-management that anything like the Skunk Works in its hay-day, will ever appear again.
This book is an excellent read. It shows that putting a small team of excellent people together under excellent leadership can overcome all sorts of seemingly impossible problems and still meet cost and timescale constraints. It should be required reading for any really aspiring engineer.
Very interesting, not too technical December 15, 2009
T. Wong (United Kingdom)
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.
Brilliant July 23, 2009
L. Pal (Sydney, Oz)
An astounding story. Brilliantly written & totally engaging cloaks & daggers stuff, made me wish I was an aeroplane designer! A shame that such sexy, cutting edge engineering is used for the destruction of people & places & things, but highly recommended anyway.
A Fascinating and compelling read! October 18, 2007
D. Guidone (Northampton, England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Written in a way that puts you in with Kelly's team and facing the frustrations and jubilations involved in cutting edge engineering! Working on the angles involved in cloaking the F117 with Stealth and the stories of raised screw heads exposing the craft on radar will always stand in my memory along with the pain of reading about the loss of test pilots flying such aircraft.
Working with titanium when no drill bits would cut it and the obstacles to be overcome with the SR-71 are just some of the other Gems.
This is one of the best books I have ever read and is highly recommended.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
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