Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed Audiobook

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).

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

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"If you really want an accurate glimpse into what's going on at Area 51, this book is a must-have. Besides revealing fascinating details on the development of some of America's most incredible top-secret aircraft, it's also a great character study of the people behind these jaw-dropping innovations. Supersonic, stealth, high altitude spying, drones and many other dramatic technologies are revealed with stunning insights here. Kelly Johnson is revealed to be a brilliant aviation innovator with a very complicated personality. Ben Rich is a savvy engineering genius with some real management skills. The Skunk Works is very much revealed to be a "Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory" of ingenious aviation design bordering on science fiction made possible by a remarkable team of gifted, experienced and very eccentric engineers and specialists. Just like Wonka, however, there are trade-offs and downsides to this secret workshop of cranky geniuses working hand-in-hand with a bureaucratic military and neurotic American political culture, not to mention the huge risks and high costs inherent with cutting-edge and bleeding-edge aerospace research. It's a great read and a great audiobook."

— David B (5 out of 5 stars)