Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed Paperback – 10 Aug. 1995

A riveting read by the man who was there. I was surprised how the F-117 Stealth Fighter was nearly cancelled and it took a lot of determination on the part of the Skunk Works team to get it (literally) off the ground. It also tells the story of the Blackbird spy plane.

A great book to read if you have heard of the SR71 or F119 nighthawk. We written and very easy to understand. A recommended read.

Very interesting read

Very interesting book, full of information you wouldn't have been able to access a few years ago. I do wonder though if a lot of it is simply dis-information.

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.

One can question humanity’s need for conflict and defence and the huge expenditures they absorb, but there is no question that military goals and budgets push technology forward rapidly. The Lockheed skunk works did fantastic work very early. A well written account from authoritative sources.

Waited a year for this book to be delivered despite first printing in 1994, 30 years ago! Actually forgot about it. Fascinating book, couldn’t put it down.

This is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Skunkworks. You will be left amazed reading into the stories behind some of the greatest engineering innovations of all time.