Customer Reviews

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a gem on many levels:
1) On the history and development of spy planes: This has been covered by many previous reviews on this book. So, I won't write more here.

2) On creativity: There are a lot of books on creativity. Many of them are trivial. Most are written by people who themselves have not design or deliver noteworthy innovations that are of national or international significance. This book is different. It is written by a person who has contributed innovations at, and even run Skunk Works, which has delivered innovation after innovation that are internationally significant.

How does a smart scientist or engineer determine if an organization is a place of major technical inventions? This book tells you the characteristics of such organizations. How do you organize and run a place that can deliver breakthrough innovations at bargain prices? This book gives you the principles on how to do it correctly.

3) On cold war and patriotism: This book gives you a glimpse into the cold war, and the hair-triggering tension of nuclear war between U.S. and the ex-Soviet Union. Also, it shows the patriotism among the U.S. government officials, top military echelons, pilots, and civilian scientists and engineers. Even more, it shows how Skunk Works' technologies tipped the power towards the U.S.

4) On biographies: This book is a partial and vivid biography of both Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich. Their personal traits, both strengths and flaws, are clearly described.

5) On Navy's major shortcomings: Kelly's fifteenth principle of rather to starve than to deal with the Navy is nothing short of astonishment. The descriptions of the Navy's sticking to Aegis frigate rather than Skunk Works' SWATH ship, and preferring traditional submarines rather than stealth submarines are so, so astounding. Right now, U.S. has the world's greatest naval power. U.S. naval power could have been much, much greater and the cost to the tax payers could have been much, much lower cost if the Navy had adopted stealth technologies from Skunk Works.

6) On the harmful effects of government interferences, wastes and bureaucratic madness: Reading this book and you can understand why we spend so much in defense and get so little in return.

Overall, this book deserves more than 5 stars. It should be read by CEOs and CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) of every major and high tech corporation looking for ways to leapfrog the competitions. It should be read by every Secretary of Defense and officers in high military echelons looking for military technologies to surpass other nations. It should be read by every bright scientists and engineers looking for a place to work where major innovations can be produced. It should be read by every science and engineering professors on how to educate future generations of science and engineering students that can create and innovate.

Skunk works is the true story behind the coolest, high tech, top secret, aerospace engineering division operated by the Lockheed Martin corporation. Forged by legendary U. Michigan alumnus Kelly Johnson, the Skunk Works has created the coolest planes of recent memory, including the SR-71 Blackbird (currently visible on the flight deck of the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier in NYC), the F117A Stealth Fighter, and the U2 spy plane. The F22 Raptor and the Joint Strike Fighter are also creations of the Skunk Works, but are not covered in this autobiography written by the successor to Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich.
This quick read is well worth your while for a couple of reasons. First, the stories behind the creation of these planes is very interesting. For example, the Skunk Works engineers found the mathematical key to the stealth design buried within an obscure physics journal originally published in Russian. Oddly, the Russians military never capitalized on the principle, despite urgings from the article's Russian author. Furthermore, when the stealth plane was first designed and kept in a secret hanger infested with some bats, the bats couldn't detect the plane with their "sonar-like" sense, and they ended up crashing into it.
The book also makes for excellent military and therefore world history. Accomplishments of the U2 spy plane and the F117-A Stealth Fighter are covered in depth and literally changed the course of world events during the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Gulf War, and other skirmishes. Many interesting, behind the scenes (formerly classified?) missions are also revealed in this book. Ben Rich also speculates on the future types of planes currently on the minds of engineers at the Skunk Works, and the implications will change how wars are fought in the future.
For readers who liked this book, NOVA recently published a video on the creation of the Joint Strike Fighter, a contract fought over between the Skunk Works and the Phantom Works of Boeing. These do all fighters are amazing, and this video is definately worth watching for those who enjoyed "Skunk Works."

I'm not particularly an avid reader of military history books or contemporary history books in general, but after a coworker described this book, curiosity got the better of me and I bought it. I'm glad I did.

Ben R. Rich joined the legendary 'Skunk Works' as a young engineer, worked on some of the most secretive military projects in recent history, and later ended up taking over management of Skunk Works. As a result, perhaps no one else in the world has as much first hand knowledge of these projects, and no one else is better positioned to chronicle some of America's military crown jewels.

Rich (and Janos) have crafted a unique book that gives Ben Rich story, with interesting first hand accounts from pilots, air force personnel, and highly placed government officials. Rich covers the struggles encountered while building various classified aircraft: the U2, SR-71 BlackBird, the stealth fighter, the stealth boat, among others. He also lightly delves into the darker side of the defense industry: politics, waste, and bureaucracy.

An amazing read, and highly recommended.

For 16 years Ben Rich was the head of Skunk Works, Lockheed Corporation's secretive special projects division. In this engrossing work, he examines 40 years of aerospace innovations, including the U-2, F-117, and (my favorite) the SR-71 Blackbird. Although the book is all about incredible innovations, do not fear that this book will be overly technical; I never bogged down while reading it and found a lot of it humorous, in fact. (On the same point, it's only fair to note that if you ARE looking for a highly technical work, this is probably not the book you want.)

I must admit that I grew up playing endlessly with toy jet-fighters, and thus for subject matter alone I would have to give three stars. Rather than telling the history of Skunk Works strictly chronologically, Rich breaks the book down into chapters that focus on specific projects. This approach avoids confusion that might arise from the overlapping development of multiple aircraft. It also allows the reader to go back and read about one particular plane without wading through unrelated information. Each chapter also contains "Other Voices," short sections written by others involved in the aerospace or defense industries. Many of these sections were written by pilots and provided some of the book's most exciting passages. I thought the "Other Voices" were a great addition that expanded the scope of Rich's work.

I also appreciated that this book was not propaganda for the military-industrial complex (a rut I believe Tom Clancy has fallen in). Rich is justifiably proud of Skunk Works' successes, but he also admits their failures, notably: an attempt in the late `50s to create a plane fueled by liquid hydrogen, and also a stealth catamaran ship. He is also quick to point out the serious flaws with the military's business procedures and candidly asks, "Do the virtuous get their just rewards? The short answer is not if they're dealing with the Pentagon on a regular basis" (p. 302). The final chapter is devoted to discussing the future of aerospace research and ways the military-industrial complex can become more efficient. For example, he shows that the government could save huge amounts of money if Lockheed aircraft were serviced by trained, experienced Lockheed workers, instead of military personnel who are constantly shifted. Yes, it's a somewhat self-serving suggestion, but it also seems fiscally responsible! I thought I would find the final chapter dull, but as a tax-payer it was actually an eye-opener!

My complaints are limited. The non-linear organization works fine when discussing airplanes, but it hampers the book's main "sub-plot": the ongoing relationship between Rich and Kelly Johnson, his predecessor as the head of Skunk Works. Rich paints a vivid picture of the curmudgeonly Johnson, but the development of their relationship is chopped up by the organization of the book. And although the book doesn't warrant an extensive bibliography, some references to other works would give the reader a chance to explore the topic more thoroughly. But neither of these points significantly detracted from my experience. This is an easy and enjoyable read for any arm-chair fighter jock.

Even if the authors did get a fact or two wrong (the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was NOT America's first supersonic jet, as the book erroneously states about 3 times. The F-86 and F-100 were both supersonic and preceded the F-104), and even though Leo Janos' touch was perhaps a bit too evident here and there (darned near everybody in the book talks in the vernacular of Chuck Yeager -- or was that Janos all along? -- with perhaps a few too many "goddams" thrown in for effect) the book is a great read.

It abruptly yanks the alluring veil of secrecy off of the Skunk Works and shows you the basic, raw underbelly of what it took to design, build, fly and sell the most advanced aircraft the world has yet seen.

Unfortunately, as a definitive document on the Skunk Works' achievements and historical implications of their aircraft, the book is but a tease. The story of the amazing SR-71 alone is worthy of a book-length treatment. But as a preface, "Skunk Works" is a great lead-in to other relevant books such as:

"Operation Overflight", by Francis Gary Powers with Curt Gentry; "Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair", by Michael R. Beschloss; "Sled Driver: Flying the World's Fastest Jet", by Brian Shul (SR-71 pilot)

Ben Rich started off as a bright new engineer at Lockheed Martin. He never imagined that taking a job under the famously fearsome Kelly Johnson would lead to a career that took him to the top of the aerospace defense industry. He has an interesting story to tell and does so with style. We catch a glimpse into the inner-workings of the United States defense industry. It's a spellbinding tale about legendary airplanes interlaced with amusing anecdotes. Being an engineer in the defense industry myself, I heartily recommend this book to engineers and anybody else interested in technology.

Rumor has it that "Skunk Works" is virtually required reading at the CIA. Author Ben Rich gives us an insider's account of what it was like to be a part of the famed Lockheed "Skunk Works" special team. The founding father was "Kelly" Johnson," who formed an elite internal technical group at Lockheed that enjoyed tremendous independence from company management and was able to conceive, design and build high performance aircraft. They produced the U2 spy plane, the SR-71 spy plane, and the stealth aircraft, to name but a few of their famous projects. Just the story behind the stealth design is worth the price of the book. It all started with an obscure article on "edge waves" by Pyotr Ufimtsev, a Russian scientist. Denys Overholser, a Skunk Works mathematician was able to wade through the abstractions and extract the key mathematical concept that led to the design of stealth aircraft. Years later Pyotr remarked that his Soviet senior designers had rejected his ideas.

In the later chapters Rich becomes somewhat bitter. We learn that "RS-71" had to be changed to "SR-71" because President Lyndon Johnson inadvertently interchanged the letters in a speech. This required modifying some 29,000 blueprints! He paints a dismal picture of how we design and build military aircraft today. Engineering used to be fun, it used to be interesting, but today it isn't. I agree with Rich. Finance and bureaucracy drives everything at large institutions.

Founded in 1943 by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson Lockheed's Advanced Projects Division known as The Skunk Works accomplished revolutionary feats of aviation and created some of the world's most successful military aircraft. Home of the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117 Stealth Fighter the Skunk Works (SW) promoted a unique environment within the aerospace industry. This book gives detailed accounts about the projects, people and methodologies that developed some of America's premier military platforms. Every aspect of the innovation process is covered from idea conception through the internal and external politics of promoting revolutionary concepts. Kelly Johnson and latter Ben Rich lead the SW during its most exciting and revolutionary discoveries. This work recounts their successes and failures of management style, discovery and relationships as the details of these projects are explained. Of particular interest is the type of environment and management style that each successive leader of the SW employed to help produce the breakthroughs required to propel these projects to legendary success.

I picked this book up after having read Don DeLillo's Libra, which pictures the protagonist, Lee Harvey Oswald, at a USAF base in Atsugi, Japan during his military service. The U2 spy plane that was based there definitely adds to the aura of mystery and fatefulness that pervades the whole of DeLillo's excellent novel and aroused my curiosity. Rich's account of the Skunk Works' history entirely satisfied my interest in this mysterious airplane. The book can be read in different ways: as a thrilling account of the Cold War, a captivating portrait of the complex and brilliant designer Kelly Johnson, and as a treatise on corporate innovation, cutting edge management methods and industry-government relationships. I found the book to be exceedingly well written, with just the right dosage of technical details, humour, personal anecdotes and historical drama. The integration of 'other voices' from test pilots, high level policy makers and air force top brass complements Rich's narrative nicely and helps in modulating the sometimes breathless pace. An excellent book. I enjoyed it a lot.

I couldn't put this book down. It is well written and so interesting that all other work got put on hold while I finished it.