Krishna
The narration is playful yet passionate. This is the true story of the stealth aircraft developed from 1975 by Lockheed Martin under the leadership of Ben Rich, the authors. The description of the top secret project, with Russian snooping (without knowing the details of what was USA up to) and eavesdropping is all told in a thriller fashion. It is fascinating to think that this is history, not a novel.
Ben has an eye on narration and perhaps helped by the coauthor, keeps the story moving. He talks about how he took over from the legend Kelly, trying to fill the shoes of his larger than life mentor and predecessor and how he had to curry favour with the defense folks because Lockheed was in financial trouble due to lack of projects with the government.
The technological arms race between the Soviets and USA are well described! (This is the Cold War phase, of course.)
The extra security put on them, the extra scrutiny by the government – impeding into their previous independence – are all told well. Ben tells of the nerve racking first test flight of the concept and how an ‘ambulance plane’ with a replacement pilot followed it around ‘just in case it is needed’.
The technophile atmosphere and people taking on oddball responsibilities to get this done on time is all charming. Definitely will appeal to techies, even though there is enough and more hear to appeal to a layman as well.
Ben describes all the pressures from the government – the strict contract, deadlines, the impossible security, the pressures and opposition from the defense as this impacted the B1 bomber schedule and the very one sided contract with Lockheed, Ben’s company, at the very right level for a lay reader and the passion for engineering shows through. There is a lot of self congratulations in it, but it is for his team rather than for his managerial skills so it does not come out as a boast. The trials that followed and the successful, almost spectacular results when it was used in the Desert Storm are all very well told.
At this point the story looks complete but you are barely half way through the story. You wonder where it will go after this. But the book is not about the Stealth Technology but Lockheed’s innovative Skunk Works.
So you have it. This book is almost like it is told in the reverse order. The greatest achievement is almost ‘given away’ in the prolog and the work leading up to it in the first quarter of the book. Then Ben goes back to his starting days and talks about how the U2 bomber was built under Kelly’s direction. Luckily it is still interesting and cloak and dagger stuff (albeit heavily engineering oriented) and so you keep reading.
The extent of the CIA and US Army operations in Russia, China and Africa are mind boggling and show the covert cloak and dagger operations during Cold War. Even though the text brims with ‘us’ vs ‘them’ in terms of ‘enemy’ and ‘bad people’ I guess that is how both spy agencies and armed forces are forced to think in times of war (even if it is Cold War). It makes for a fascinating read, even though it has no specific narrative piece buried in it.
One thing I like is how blunt he is even about his mentor and benefactor Kelly. The enthusiasm for engineering shows through in every page. And he does not mince words about his aversion to Federal bureaucracy.
However, you can safely ignore the last few pages where he talks about his ideas on how to improve the process unless you are into the minutiae of the procurement process of the Federal defense department.
Still a very fun read through a top secret phase of the fighter jets and naval vessels. For that alone, this book repays reading.
6/10
— Krishna