The Projects of Skunk Works: 75 Years of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs

The Skunk Works is one of the big names in US aerospace development, and we always associate the Skunk Works with the U-2 and SR-71 spyplanes, but also the F-22 Raptor, F-117 Nighthawk, F-80 Shooting Star, F-104 Starfighter, and the F-35 Lightning II. However, the history of the Skunk Works is more than just spyplanes and stealth aircraft. Steve Pace does a good job chronicling Skunk Works aerospace projects during its 70+ years of its existence, starting with the P-38 Lightning and ending with the latest designs for advanced aircraft from Lockheed Martin, including the Next Generation Air Dominance, blended wing body aircraft, a supersonic business jet, SR-72 hypersonic jet, and the losing contender for the competition that was won by the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider. As shown by Pace, the Skunk Works gets the credit for the world's first combat jet design with afterburning engines, the L-133 Starjet, and Lockheed took a dive into space tech and guided missiles with the Corona spy satellite program and a stealthy cruise missile. The honor also goes to the Skunk Works for the world's fastest airbreathing drones, the D-21 and Q-5. Also of interest in this book is a high-altitude airship that can stay airborne for days and a hypersonic scramjet-powered aircraft; the unveiling of the SR-72 four years ago gives lie to the opinion of most aviation experts that the much ballyhooed Aurora spyplane either is non-existent or was only a technology demonstrator to test manned airbreathing flight in the Mach 4-6 range.

Excellent book, great photos. Only noticed one typo which is excusable for a Kindle edition. I would give 5 stars if pages and more pages of contract and serial numbers were omitted. They did not add much to the overall history.

This, like the book, X Bombers and Fighters is a very good guide to the glory days of American Aviation. The short programatic histories are very good and historicaly valuable although the ones in the X bomber and fighters book are better and that book gives a much more complete picture of Aircraft technology and engines over time as it covers a much larger scope of work. Good sources for lost programs like the Lockheed SST proposal and their design for the F-15 competiiton. The history of early stealth and the F-22 and possible developments are told very extensively. Also the F-35 program coverage as well as the possible future aircraft are excellent. One of the very few aviation books that tells you things you did not know and has pictures you never saw before which puts in in a special class. If you Liked X Bombers and Fighters you will want this to go with it.

Gave it as a gift. The recipient loved it.

This is a fun book with a lot of problems. Many of the problems could have been fixed with better editing (examples: 38 February or showing pictures but the related text was pages away or saying that the information was classified in one box (U2R) and then showing that information on the airplane in the next page. But there are other problems that you will realize if you have read more detailed books on various projects. I'm enjoying the book and if you are interested in this material you will also probably like it, but cross check with Wikipedia frequently.

What do you get someone who has everything? A book about secret plans from Lockheed Martin! The person I bought it for loved it. It feels more like a textbook than a normal hardcover because of its size but it is very well printed and would make a great coffee table book for people who love weapons

Very informative book, but needs to be edited for caption mismatches and dual photographes

It was ok, but not great. A lot of detail about the administration of programs and political decisions. A few facts I hadn't heard already. Unfortunately, it was very light on the technical challenges overcome on the various aircraft. It seemed somewhat superficial on the technology. It was interesting to note that many cancelled programs fed their technology into later programs. So we didn't ever waste anything, even though we seemed to get many things ready to produce and then cancel the things, probably wasting a lot of money. One thing I was flabbergasted by was how the author somehow forgot that we never captured Bagdad in 1991. He seems to have confused the two Iraq wars... Really made me wonder what else he got wrong.

Klasse Buch

great book, answered many questions that other books did not good value

ロッキード・マーチンの秘密研究開発機関スカンク・ワークスの７５周年を記念して編纂された本である。スカンクワークスは秘密の機関なので何をしているかはほとんど外部に漏れてこない。従って、内容もありきたりと覚悟していたが、何の何のその充実度は素晴らしい。各秘密航空機開発プロジェクトのコンセプトから試作機、量産まで各種画像を使って丁寧に解説してある。もちろん、秘の数字は出てこないが、スカンクワークスが何を考えて開発していたか、よくわかる。高い目標を設定し、最短開発期間で、ほとんど米軍、米国防省の干渉、官僚的指導を徹底的に排除し、プロジェクトの完成に突っ走る。開発技術者のバイブルであり、この本は私の宝である。

simply a n excellent book on this subject....a must if you are an aviation fan

Tried to read through this, as I'm something of a planes/engineering nut, but the book just didn't hold my interest.