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.