by Ben R Rich
D-21 spy drone tucked under wing of B-52 mothership. Drone would drop and ignite off Chinese coast for spy flight over mainland. (Lockheed)
The Stealth Ship undergoing sea trials off the West Coast in the mid-1980s. (Skunk Works)
The Stealth ship inside its secret hangarlike floating dock, where it was assembled and constructed. (Skunk Works)
Ben Rich and the F-117 Stealth fighter. (Denny Lombard and Eric Schulzinger)
The Stealth Ship, called the Sea Shadow, during sea trials. (Skunk Works)
Lockheed’s chief engineer Kelly Johnson talking to one of his pilots during a test flight in the 1940s. (Lockheed)
Ben Rich receiving the 1989 Collier Trophy, aviation’s highest award, for the Stealth fighter. (Lockheed)
Ben Rich and his old mentor, Kelly Johnson, pose in front of a new production model of the famous U-2 in 1983, following Kelly’s retirement. (Lockheed)
The Skunk Works complex off the main runway of the Burbank Municipal Airport in downtown Burbank, California. (Lockheed)
Also by Leo Janos
YEAGER
CRIME OF PASSION
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Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
1 A Promising Start
2 Engines by GE, Body by Houdini
3 The Silver Bullet
4 Swatting at Mosquitoes
5 How We Skunks Got Our Name
6 Picture Postcards for Ike
7 Overflying Russia
8 Blowing Up Burbank
9 Faster Than a Speeding Bullet
10 Getting Off the Ground
11 Remembering Habu
12 The China Syndrome
13 The Ship That Never Was
14 The Long Goodbye
15 The Two-Billion-Dollar Bomber
16 Drawing the Right Conclusions
Epilogue
Photos
Also by Leo Janos
Newsletters
Copyright
* Dr. Ufimtsev came to teach electromagnetic theory at UCLA in 1990. Until his arrival here he had remained blissfully unaware of his enormous impact on America’s stealth airplane development, but clearly wasn’t surprised by the news. “Senior Soviet designers were absolutely uninterested in my theories,” he wryly observed.
* General Bond was later killed in a test flight. Because of that tragedy the Pentagon ruled that general officers could no longer do flight tests.
* Perry is now serving in the Clinton administration as the Secretary of Defense.
* In 1960, Capp’s publisher objected to our use of Skonk Works, so we changed it to Skunk Works and registered the name and logo as trademarks. It is listed in the Random House Dictionary: “Often a secret experimental division, laboratory or project for producing innovative design or products in the computer or aerospace field.”
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by Ben R. Rich
Cover design by Tom Tafuri; photograph of F-117A courtesy of U.S. Air Force
Cover copyright © 2012 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First e-book edition: December 2012
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ISBN 978-0-316-24693-4