Title: Skunk Works Pdf A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies. 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 20th century.
If you're an engineer you'll love this. SO. GOOD. As an engineer, I found this book to be fascinating. It's basically a narrative about several skunk works projects like the U-2 and F117 interspersed with tons of insane and interesting side stories by people involved (mostly test pilots).Here's one example. One engineer was formulating a new fuel for the U-2 that would work in the high altitude engine. The fuel was called LF something or other, and there was a running joke that that stood for "Lighter Fluid" due to it's awful smell. Chemically it was actually more similar to one of the main ingredients in the bug spray "Flit", which was popular at the time. The year they put the (still very top-secret) U2 into service, there was an unexplained nationwide shortage of bug-spray.Practical Management Tips Mr. Rich gives a unique perspective on the legendary Lockheed Martin Skunkworks and it's equally legendary manager. From the narrative you get a really good feel for the culture of the place and why it was so successful. My goal in reading this book was to get practical tips for building successful teams and I think I got some ideas:(1) Eliminate bureaucracy(2) Prefer having a small with high average talent to a larger less talented team(3) Make sure different functions are physically next to each and communicate incessantly(4) Shield the team from external pressure(5) Challenge the team with "impossible" problems that get talented people excited.These are all things that can help a small talented team far outperform a larger team with a much bigger budget.Top secret and stealth technology. The "Skunk Works" did it all. "Skunk Works" is the popular moniker of Lockheed Martin's top, top secret aircraft aircraft program for the US government. This book is written by the second director of this program, Ben Rich. The book's primary focus is the U-2, F-117A, and last but not least the SR-71. A ship for the Navy, and a drone program are briefly covered also. Ben Rich is credited for developing and building "stealth" into military assets. Primarily aircraft. After Francis Gary Powers was shot down piloting a U-2 over Soviet Russia, it quickly became apparent that a faster, higher flying and stealthy aircraft was needed. Hence the SR-71. It can travel in the atmosphere at a height of nearly 90,000 feet. It can cruise at well over Mach 3, and has a Radar profile of about a ball-bearing (thus "Stealthy"). This book is fascinating and gives you a first-person account of these extraordinary aircraft. The F-117 flew over the center of Baghdad, without fighter escorts; and dropped 2,000 lb. bombs during the Iraq war. The U-2 is the only one out of the three that is still flying missions. As a matter of fact, a U-2 just recently crashed in California.
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