Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed

Leo Janos, Ben R. Rich

Little, Brown, Feb 26, 2013 - History - 400 pages

This classic history of America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies is "a gripping technothriller in which the technology is real" (New York Times Book Review).


From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, 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 twentieth century.


"Thoroughly engrossing." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Kavinay - LibraryThing

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.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - buffalogr - LibraryThing

I picked up this book because I thought it might contain some background for part of my Air Force career--it did. Several of the other voices used by the author were people with whom I have worked ...

About the author

Ben Rich headed the Skunk Works from 1975 until he retired in 1991. He died in 1995. Leo Janus is the author of Yeager, the acclaimed bestselling autobiography of test pilot Chuck Yeager.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
• Authors: Leo Janos, Ben R. Rich
• Publisher: Little, Brown, 2013
• ISBN: 031624693X, 9780316246934
• Length: 400 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / Aviation & Space; History / Military / Strategy; History / Wars & Conflicts / Persian Gulf War (1991); Political Science / Intelligence & Espionage; Technology & Engineering / Aeronautics & Astronautics