Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

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A review of Ben Rich’s Skunk Works.

The Book

Ben Rich ran Lockheed’s Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding the legendary Kelly Johnson. This is his account of building the U-2, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 stealth fighter, and other aircraft that didn’t officially exist. Engineering at the edge of what’s possible, under impossible constraints.

Why This Book

TODO: What drew me to it after The Power Broker

  • From building cities to building aircraft that shouldn’t exist
  • Power Broker showed what bureaucracy enables; Skunk Works shows what happens when you escape it
  • Engineering under secrecy⁠—⁠what changes when you can’t talk about your work?

Kelly Johnson’s 14 Rules

TODO: The principles that defined Skunk Works

  • Small teams, senior engineers
  • Minimal reporting, maximum autonomy
  • The customer relationship (one person with authority)
  • Why these rules worked

The Aircraft

TODO: What they actually built

  • U-2: The impossible altitude
  • SR-71 Blackbird: Still the fastest
  • F-117: Invisible to radar
  • Have Blue and the birth of stealth

The Engineering

TODO: The technical challenges

  • Titanium fabrication for the SR-71
  • How stealth actually works
  • Testing aircraft that don’t exist
  • When physics says no

The Culture

TODO: What made Skunk Works different

  • Engineers on the shop floor
  • The 10% rule (overhead)
  • Security as constraint and freedom
  • Why talent stayed

The Politics

TODO: Navigating the Pentagon

  • Black budgets and oversight
  • When projects get canceled
  • The contractor relationship
  • What Rich learned from Johnson about power

What’s Changed

TODO: Could Skunk Works exist today?

  • Contractor consolidation
  • Security theater vs. actual secrecy
  • The procurement process now
  • SpaceX as spiritual successor?

Connection to Power Broker

TODO: The contrast

  • Moses built in public, accumulated power through visibility
  • Skunk Works built in secret, power through results
  • Both: small teams with autonomy beat bureaucracies
  • Both: the person matters (Johnson, Moses)

Connection to Software

TODO: What tech can learn

  • Kelly’s rules vs. agile manifestos
  • The danger of process
  • Why 14 people built the SR-71 but 1,400 couldn’t build Healthcare.gov
  • Skunkworks projects in tech companies

The Cold War Context

TODO: Why this mattered

  • What the Soviets had
  • The intelligence gap
  • Why speed and altitude weren’t enough
  • The shift to stealth

Rating

TODO: Final assessment