https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
For context, this book covers history on the development of these UFOs and was written by Ben Rich, who worked at and eventually led the Lockheed division that developed these planes. If nothing else, it's a fascinating account of many historical events from a totally different vantage point.
> the aircraft architect
because that's the guy who really built it. He could not have done it alone or without the help of everyone you mentioned, but let's not pretend like everyone was equally important here.
As a tangent, this is one of my favorite books detailing the creation of some of Skunkworks' projects, including the SR-71:
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
His second in command at Lockheed, a man named Ben Rich also wrote a very good book: https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
It's great that you brought up "Sled Driver", I'm actually currently saving up to buy a copy. Brian Shul still has new copies available on his website for $250[2]. I think the copies that go for very high prices on eBay are the first editions or some of the special commemorative versions.
May I ask your opinion on the print quality of "Sled Driver"? I know Shul is a photographer, in addition to being a former SR-71 pilot, so I assume the photographic print quality is quite high. Have your read his companion book "The Untouchables"?
[1]https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
I'd heard this before, but the actual genesis of Lockheed's Have Blue/F-117 was this: 1) Petr Ufimtsev in the 1960s develops the equations for calculating the radar energy reflected by a given geometric configuration 2) USAF notices and translates this into English 3) Denys Overholser and Bill Schroeder at Lockheed find, read, and implement it in software (which the Russians didn't have the computational power to do) 4) Lockheed is looking for a new Skunkworks project (this is post-SR 71, and Kelly Johnson was transitioning out of Skunkworks after handing things over to Ben Rich) and decides to bet on stealth ("What?! That'll never work! It's crazy!") 5) {... many, many, MANY person-hours later} 6) F-117
Side note: the reason the F-117 has geometric surfaces is that when it was being designed in the 60s and 70s there wasn't enough available computational power to calculate more complex shapes (e.g. F-22).
For a military contracting specific account: http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
Here's a great book to read about the SR-71.
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
At the time, I recall a number of people who read the book bemoaning 1991 as a bygone era of opportunity, as if all the good ideas and opportunities to invent had been "used up". Interesting how different people take the same text as self-defeating vs inspiring.
Also, on the topic of inspirational books, I always have to mention Skunk Works[0], one of my all-time favorites.
Want to build a Mach3 aircraft in the days when most people thought jets were pretty clever?
Want to do it in <2years using materials that had never been used in a plane before - and do it on budget.
And repeat the success with half a a dozen other projects.
And it's described in a book that everyone in technology (or management) should read http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
As soon as he talked to them they enthused about the Skunkworks setup and how their version would be better since it would be in the main plant, with it's own set of VPs to supervise it and be properly intergrated into the main business etc.
ps. Read his biography http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d... if you think any of this Silicon Valley stuff is new
Not every thing in there can be taken at face value (his rant against the paint locker on the Sea Shadow for example... it's really the 'toxic solvents and chemicals locker'), but still full of gold.
For example, they had into all sorts of problems wielding titanium for the first time. Chlorine would wreck all sorts of havoc on the plates they used, which they discovered when someone drew on a plate with a ball-point pen. And then they completely ripped their hair out when the municipality increased the chlorination in the water they were using to clean the plates.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
It's a great read!
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/d...
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...