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I'd highly recommend the book Skunk Works by Ben Rich. It's about the engineering team at Lockheed Martin that designed the Blackbird (and the U-2, and several

I'd highly recommend the book Skunk Works by Ben Rich. It's about the engineering team at Lockheed Martin that designed the Blackbird (and the U-2, and several other amazing planes), and describes many of the engineering challenges in detail.

jeffdn 4y ago
Such a fascinating read! I particularly enjoyed the part where they are testing the radar cross section of Have Blue, the initial design for the F-117. They had put it up on the test stand, but think the radar is malfunctioning, as they don't see any returns on the scope. Finally, they get a tiny return -- a bird had landed on the test object!
- hef19898 4y ago
  The F-117 is such great plane, and defense project. Developed as complete black project, it was delivered in time and, allegedly, in budget. The latter point is hard to verify, after all they used parts from the F-15 and F-16 programms. Up to the point where congress challenegd the spare needs for those programms. Plus, it was a beautiful plane.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    The B-2 and F-117 are so bizarre and alien looking compared to everything that came before and after (in a good way). If we were picking planes for a space opera, IMO the big villain guy would fly around in a B-2, his minions would get F-117s, and probably the hero would get a Blackbird (although, with a less menacing paint job).
    - tomcam 4y ago
      Analysis: True
NegativeLatency 4y ago
There's an audiobook of it which was pretty well done
inasio 4y ago
My favorite part of the new Top Gun movie was the first 10-15 minutes. It features a very nice looking plane with a cool skunk logo [0] [0] https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/aero/photo/skunkworks/Homepage/classified3.png https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/a...
- Victerius 4y ago
  (Spoilers?) I thought the Darkstar plane (or a copy, since it disintegrates in flight) would return at the end of the movie to save the day or as a surprise, but it didn't.
  - MarkMarine 4y ago
    Spoilers: Maverick died during that crash and the whole movie is just his last DMT hit before brain death. (Not my theory, lifted from the internets)
    - tfigment 4y ago
      That theory actually makes it a better movie for me
  - edrxty 4y ago
    I got the feeling they recut a lot of the first act in post. A lot of effort was put into the darkstar both in production and in marketing and it was turned into a throwaway
    - dotancohen 4y ago
      I got the feeling that the whole Darkstar scene, and the entire movie after the helicopter gunship missed with his cannon, were added just to padded the trailer with nice footage. I absolutely loved seeing the (virtual) F-14 fly, I think that I've seen all publicly available F-14 footage on Youtube a dozen times. But the actual story was bookmarked between Maverick getting sent to Mirimar (or North Shore, whatever) and looking down the barrels of the Mil MI.
gumby 4y ago
I second this recommendation. I've read this book more than once. I'm amazed at how quickly they developed and shipped product, and developed their own tooling in the process.
0000011111 4y ago
I 2ed this recommendation. After reading the book, I felt like I understood the fundamentals of why the Blackbird program was limited in scope and time in contrast to their cheeper to build and operate style aircraft.
zizee 4y ago
Love that book. Sled Driver is also worth checking out. It focuses on things from the pilots perspective, but from memory the pilots had to have a fairly intimate understanding of their vehicles, so a lot of discussion of the mechanics/engineering. Offtopic: Skunkworks, and Master's of Doom are two of my favourite non fiction books, and they both had a similar vibe. Liftoff (Eric Berger) was another. Can people recommend more books like this?
- wantoncl 4y ago
  Blind Man's Bluff: https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/dp/1610393589 https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/... I think it's on par with Skunk Works. Absolutely amazing stories about submarine espionage, stealth fighters but underwater.
  - zizee 4y ago
    Thankyou, I will check it out :-)

jeffdn 4y ago

Such a fascinating read! I particularly enjoyed the part where they are testing the radar cross section of Have Blue, the initial design for the F-117. They had put it up on the test stand, but think the radar is malfunctioning, as they don't see any returns on the scope. Finally, they get a tiny return -- a bird had landed on the test object!

hef19898 4y ago
The F-117 is such great plane, and defense project. Developed as complete black project, it was delivered in time and, allegedly, in budget. The latter point is hard to verify, after all they used parts from the F-15 and F-16 programms. Up to the point where congress challenegd the spare needs for those programms. Plus, it was a beautiful plane.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  The B-2 and F-117 are so bizarre and alien looking compared to everything that came before and after (in a good way). If we were picking planes for a space opera, IMO the big villain guy would fly around in a B-2, his minions would get F-117s, and probably the hero would get a Blackbird (although, with a less menacing paint job).
  - tomcam 4y ago
    Analysis: True

NegativeLatency 4y ago

There's an audiobook of it which was pretty well done

inasio 4y ago

My favorite part of the new Top Gun movie was the first 10-15 minutes. It features a very nice looking plane with a cool skunk logo [0] [0] https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/aero/photo/skunkworks/Homepage/classified3.png https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/a...

Victerius 4y ago
(Spoilers?) I thought the Darkstar plane (or a copy, since it disintegrates in flight) would return at the end of the movie to save the day or as a surprise, but it didn't.
- MarkMarine 4y ago
  Spoilers: Maverick died during that crash and the whole movie is just his last DMT hit before brain death. (Not my theory, lifted from the internets)
  - tfigment 4y ago
    That theory actually makes it a better movie for me
- edrxty 4y ago
  I got the feeling they recut a lot of the first act in post. A lot of effort was put into the darkstar both in production and in marketing and it was turned into a throwaway
  - dotancohen 4y ago
    I got the feeling that the whole Darkstar scene, and the entire movie after the helicopter gunship missed with his cannon, were added just to padded the trailer with nice footage. I absolutely loved seeing the (virtual) F-14 fly, I think that I've seen all publicly available F-14 footage on Youtube a dozen times. But the actual story was bookmarked between Maverick getting sent to Mirimar (or North Shore, whatever) and looking down the barrels of the Mil MI.

gumby 4y ago

I second this recommendation. I've read this book more than once. I'm amazed at how quickly they developed and shipped product, and developed their own tooling in the process.

0000011111 4y ago

I 2ed this recommendation. After reading the book, I felt like I understood the fundamentals of why the Blackbird program was limited in scope and time in contrast to their cheeper to build and operate style aircraft.

zizee 4y ago

Love that book. Sled Driver is also worth checking out. It focuses on things from the pilots perspective, but from memory the pilots had to have a fairly intimate understanding of their vehicles, so a lot of discussion of the mechanics/engineering. Offtopic: Skunkworks, and Master's of Doom are two of my favourite non fiction books, and they both had a similar vibe. Liftoff (Eric Berger) was another. Can people recommend more books like this?

wantoncl 4y ago
Blind Man's Bluff: https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/dp/1610393589 https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/... I think it's on par with Skunk Works. Absolutely amazing stories about submarine espionage, stealth fighters but underwater.
- zizee 4y ago
  Thankyou, I will check it out :-)