Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

一句话：Kelly Johnson 的长期副手、后来的 Skunk Works 继任者 Ben Rich 所写的回忆录，David 称之为"工程师版的 Top Gun 自传"，是 Acquired Lockheed Martin 一集里 Kelly Johnson 与 Ben Rich 本人大量金句与轶事的直接出处。

简介

Ben Rich 在 Kelly Johnson 麾下长期担任二号人物，Kelly 退休后接任 Skunk Works 主管，主导了 F-117 隐身战机的豪赌立项。全书以第一人称记述他在 Lockheed 的岁月：U-2、SR-71 Blackbird、F-117 Nighthawk 等机密项目从构想到试飞的内部视角，以及 Kelly Johnson 那套近乎凶残地限制团队规模、设计者贴着生产线的工程哲学。

推荐理由

David 的原话是——"This book is like the Top Gun of historical autobiographies. You read it, and you were just fired up. It is amazing what these people did."（这本书就像历史自传里的 Top Gun，读完你会热血沸腾，这些人做到的事情令人惊叹。）他还补一句"There's a wonderful book. There are a bunch of wonderful books around Lockheed, but a book titled Skunk Works..."，把它单独点名为关于 Lockheed 众多著作里最值得一读的一本。全集里大量核心金句——包括 Kelly 那句"unless he had the hell scared out of him at least once a year in a cockpit, he wouldn't have the proper perspective to design airplanes"、Ben Rich 入职当天被带去看 U-2 原型机时"the full weight of government secrecy fell on me like a sack of cement"的自述、以及 1992 年他对"piecemeal 制造将取代 Skunk Works 模式"的精准预言——全部直接引自本书。

出处

Lockheed Martin：军工复合体的样本 多处整段诵读原文，包括 Skunk Works 名称由来（源自漫画《Li'l Abner》里的"skonk works"私酿作坊，因被漫画出版商起诉才改拼法）、"That primitive skunk works operation set the standards for what followed..."一段对 P-80 项目的记述，以及 1992 年（书出版之年）Ben Rich 对 B-2 轰炸机"piecemeal manufacturing"生产模式的预言性总结："For better or for worse, this piecemeal manufacturing approach, rather than the Skunk Works way, will characterize large aerospace projects from now on."