Books I’ve Read: Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Hardcover)
Last year I started a bunch of books, but I don’t think I finished a single one. This year I’m up to two so far. Well, one “real” book and a graphic novel (more on that in another post perhaps).
“Skunk Works” was a nice fast read about the legendary Lockheed group that built some of the most advanced airplanes ever including the U-2, SR-71, and the F-177 stealth “fighter.” Sure, it doesn’t go into super, in-depth detail, but it definitely gives you a feel for the time and let’s you know that the Skunk Works accomplishments were pretty damn amazing. I’m a little rusty in writing more than 140 characters at a time so I’ll let Publisher’s Weekly help out some:
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.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The surprising part for me came at the end when Rich gives a pretty accurate assessment of what the future might hold in terms of both military airpower (ie. unmanned drones) and threats from “small hostile countries.” About the only thing he missed (and you can’t really blame him), is the rise of the internet and its mass-adoption by the general public, our nation’s military, and our enemies (who turned out to include non-state actors too). If you like airplanes, cold war history, or work in or around the government, I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy of this book.
