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In the aviation industry, Lockheed Martin famously avoided 'resting on its laurels' by having a separate 'skunkworks' part (who made the U-2, SR-71 and practica
by ArnoVW 4y ago
In the aviation industry, Lockheed Martin famously avoided 'resting on its laurels' by having a separate 'skunkworks' part (who made the U-2, SR-71 and practically invented 'stealth' i.e. F-117, F-22, etc)
It was originally created by Kelly but he managed to transmit the spirit to a successor, who wrote an interesting book about his time (80's and 90's) called 'stealth'. If you look on Google you can find the PDF.
Another book about organisations having to deal with ossification is 'the soul of a new machine'. It's written by a journalist that was embedded in a R&D department of a computer manufacturer in the 70's and 80's. The place is run by someone a lot like Kelly Johnson, and the author managed very well to get into his mind. Again, I believe you can find a PDF on Google.
- adamc 4y agoFinished "The Soul of a New Machine". It's fantastic. It mostly takes place in 1978-1979, although the machine debuted in the first half of 1980.
- adamc 4y agoThe Skunkworks book was OK. Lots of memorable anecdotes, but not nearly as well-written as Kidder's book.
- Throwawayaerlei 4y ago"It was originally created by Kelly but he managed to transmit the spirit to a successor, who wrote an interesting book about his time (80's and 90's) called 'stealth'." The time period doesn't quite match up, but I found Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben R. Rich https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316743003/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316743003/ to be quite interested if not quite as interesting as I'd hoped when I bought it.