Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

This book has been on my TBR for a little over a year and I happened upon it in a little free library on my street. A first edition complete with dust jacket and clippings of obits for Louis W. Schalk (handwritten: WP [Washington Post] 8/21/02; Schalk was a test pilot, the first to fly the Blackbird. He died in Northern Virginia.) and Ben Rich, author of this book and former head of Lockheed's Skunk Works.

The book is pretty good, if you're interested in the U-2, SR-71, Stealth Fighter, or management of an operation like Skunk Works. The voice in which it is written is casual and approachable. Rich (and his co-author, Leo Janos) puts dialogue to historical conversations that are sometimes as many as 40 years in the past. Sometimes this dialogue is a little suspect to my ear, but I don't think it's meant to be taken as if it were printed in the New York Times. It's typically expository and that's fine. There is plenty in the writing that clearly encapsulates sort of 60's-80's business ‘sense' that I had to skim over, because it is not very interesting or compelling.

The trials and tribulations of the various major projects that Rich describes, however, are. They're especially interesting when Rich & Janos talk about the engineering problems present, and they're talked about in understandable ways.

There are little sections of the book with commentaries from other folks - typically industry, government, and military veterans. Think generals and such. Some of these are patently political and flat out disinteresting. Some of the worst offenders may as well be writing press releases straight to the WSJ in 1994. Fine. Some of them (typically by engineers or pilots) are super interesting, and put is in the drafting room or cockpit.

This is probably the most Dad-energy book I've ever read. I could see a 50 year old Dad eating this thing right up in the airport lounge. I liked it, but would also be interested in a much more technical and detailed discussion of the projects (especially the SR-71) from a Richard Rhodes type.

Very interesting read about the advent of stealth technology in aircraft from one of the ones at the forefront of the technology. The the whole book reads very conversationally throughout and Ben Rich is not one to pull punches and calls people out. I knocked off a star since the book devolves a bit into a series of meandering shorter anecdotes towards the end. Overall a great read and would highly recommend!

Fantastic engineering tale. I love this genre.

About the high-stress adventure of building airplanes, learning about radar-absorbing coatings, experimenting with perfect stealth geometries, about going on overnight flights at high altitude across Russia. About how making timely decisions even if they turn out wrong is better than to delay decisions. About having your designers sit right next to your machinists. About prototyping. About using off-the-shelf components. About keeping your teams small.


Kelly Johnson's 14 Skunk Works Rules1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.2. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry.3. The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).4. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.5. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.6. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program.7. The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontract on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones.8. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don't duplicate so much inspection.9. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn't, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.10. The specifications applying to the hardware must be agreed to well in advance of contracting. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended.11. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn't have to keep running to the bank to support government projects.12. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor, the very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum.13. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures.14. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay not based on the number of personnel supervised.

Damn interesting for the engineering behind the scenes even if the military industrial context is repugnant.

Also, the shear lunacy of the CIA never disappoints.

A fascinating look into the glory years of the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works as written by former leader of the division, Ben Rich.

Contextual Note
My love of airplanes started at an early age as a child growing up in Houston, TX we were very poor, but my Dad would take me to Intercontinental airport just to watch the airplanes come in and take off. He had a pair of old binoculars and he taught me how to tell all the planes apart. We'd go see the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds anytime they were within driving distance. I loved all the different, beautiful planes of the American fleet. We had books full of photos and specs of all the world's aircraft. Dad and I would talk airplanes for hours, debating the virtues and vices of each of them. His favorite was the F-14 Tomcat. My favorite fighter was the F-15. But my overall favorite jet was the SR-71. That blackbird was the prettiest plane ever drafted. Most of my childhood, I grew up wanting to be a pilot or astronaut, likely due to all these discussions. /context

This book explores the inner workings of the Skunk Works unit in Lockheed Martin from the development of America's first jet fighter (the P-80) to the U-2 and the first true stealth airplane, the F-117 (along with its predecessor, the Have Blue prototype). And of course the SR-71! There's a huge focus on the founder of Skunk Works, Kelly Johnson and how he ran the shop. There are many anecdotes from pilots who flew these craft on missions and the unusual situations and the politics that were affected in this crazy time in history (1950's - 1990's). You'll also find plenty of discussion of the bidding process and competitions between aircraft companies of that age.

It is all simply fascinating. The very end also includes some insight into how the process actually prevents the citizens from getting the most out of our tax dollars and some suggestions that might help.

If you've ever sat around and had a discussion about which airplane is your favorite (ever in your life), you'll probably enjoy this one.

Fascinating account of Lockheed's secret ‘Skunk Works' facility, and how they went about achieving technological advances that were generations ahead of their time, including the U-2, Blackbird, an Stealth Fighter.

I picked up this book hoping to learn about the SkunkWorks culture and operations. As software developer, lots of the operational strategies that were put in place by Kelly Johnson mimic whats being done in startup culture. It was interesting to see that startup techniques aren't anything new and have been used since the start of SkunkWorks in the 1940s.

One thing that bothered me was the timeline that takes place in the book is all over the place. It would have been easier to follow if the events that took place were captured in chronological order.