
Skunk Works
A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
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Narrated by:
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Pete Larkin
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By:
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Ben R. Rich
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Leo Janos
About this listen
From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies. Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. 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 20th century.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2013 Ben R. Rich (P)2015 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Wyatt Earp is regarded as the most famous lawman of the Old West, best known for his role in the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. But the story of his two-year war with a band of outlaws known as the Cowboys has never been told in full. The Cowboys were the largest outlaw gang in the history of the American West. After battles with the law in Texas and New Mexico, they shifted their operations to Arizona. There, they ruled the border, robbing, rustling, smuggling, and killing with impunity until they made the fatal mistake of tangling with the Earp brothers.
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Tough Listen.
- By Nick on 05-15-20
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Stealth
- The Secret Contest to Invent Invisible Aircraft
- By: Peter Westwick
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen US aircraft appeared in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes seemed to come from nowhere. Each aircraft was more than 60 feet in length and with a wingspan of 40 feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology. And it was devastating.
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Good Overview of the original development
- By Amazon Customer on 08-01-22
By: Peter Westwick
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First Casualty
- The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11
- By: Toby Harnden
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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This dramatic true story reveals the secret mission of the eight members of the CIA’s Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11.
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Deeply researched
- By Jason G on 09-08-21
By: Toby Harnden
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Midnight in the Pacific
- Guadalcanal -- The World War II Battle That Turned the Tide of War
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Published on the 75th anniversary of the battle and utilizing vivid accounts written by the combatants at Guadalcanal, along with marine corps and army archives and oral histories, Midnight in the Pacific is both a sweeping narrative and a compelling drama of individual marines, soldiers, and sailors caught in the crosshairs of history.
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Don't start here or you'll be confused.
- By Doctor Bob on 08-13-17
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Bloodlands
- Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required listening for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.
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a warning for the future
- By judith on 11-06-19
By: Timothy Snyder
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Down the Great Unknown
- John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon
- By: Edward Dolnick
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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On May 24, 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell, and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. The Grand Canyon, not explored before, was as mysterious as Atlantis - and as perilous. The 10 men set out from Green River Station, Wyoming Territory, down the Colorado in four wooden rowboats. Ninety-nine days later, six half-starved wretches came ashore near Callville, Arizona.
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Modern references take away
- By HC-2 NAS Norfolk '92 on 08-17-19
By: Edward Dolnick
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The Art of Invisibility
- The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data
- By: Kevin Mitnick, Robert Vamosi, Mikko Hypponen
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Like it or not, your every move is being watched and analyzed. Consumers' identities are being stolen, and a person's every step is being tracked and stored. What once might have been dismissed as paranoia is now a hard truth, and privacy is a luxury few can afford or understand. In this explosive yet practical book, Kevin Mitnick illustrates what is happening without your knowledge - and he teaches you "the art of invisibility".
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Limited value for the average person
- By James C on 10-14-17
By: Kevin Mitnick, and others
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Perfectly Wounded
- A Memoir About What Happens After a Miracle
- By: Mike Day, Admiral William H. McRaven - foreword, Robert Vera
- Narrated by: Mike Day
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The incredible true story of former Navy SEAL Mike Day, who survived being shot 27 times while deployed in Iraq.
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Perfectly written...
- By Zac on 08-02-20
By: Mike Day, and others
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Silent Spring Revolution
- John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening
- By: Douglas Brinkley
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 29 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
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Need one more book...
- By Chuck Wofford on 02-23-23
By: Douglas Brinkley
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The Design of Everyday Things
- Revised and Expanded Edition
- By: Don Norman
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious - even liberating - audiobook, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints.
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Designers Start Here (missing visual references)
- By sammy k on 09-01-19
By: Don Norman
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Think Like a Rocket Scientist
- Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life
- By: Ozan Varol
- Narrated by: Ozan Varol
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Rocket science is often celebrated as the ultimate triumph of technology. But it's not. Rather, it's the apex of a certain thought process—a way to imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable. It's the same thought process that enabled Neil Armstrong to take his giant leap for mankind, that allows spacecraft to travel millions of miles through outer space and land on a precise spot, and that brings us closer to colonizing other planets.
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Incrementally new perspectives on rehashed themes
- By James S. on 06-13-20
By: Ozan Varol
Great listen
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Glad the Skunks Works are an American Company!
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A GREAT INSIDERS ACCOUNT
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A Must Read or listen book.
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BUT. The ehhhh New Ehhhh Englander Scotch drinking narrator gets old about 2/3 of the way through the book. So cocky sounding after awhile. If I was the producer I would have REALLY PUSHED this guy to loosen the Polo and get into the individual people's personalities and vocal stylings a lot more. He has to have the ability to do more than his own voice and his voice with his nose plugged. His cadence and emotion was great. (I can understand time constraints to get the book out quicker and less time given to planning how to tell the facts).
I know it's live account of events and has to be delivered as facts from each person's statement. Your telling a story too though. Weave it, let yourself get drawn in deeper.
Would I choose another narrator, emphatically NO. But I wouldn't push record until about four fingers of scotch and some more passion is showing.
wonderful story. narrator nyaaaaa
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Fantastic look into the Skunk Works!
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I have found myself looking for additional information about Ben and Kelly on the internet. It was very interesting to see how things have progressed since this book was written in the 90's, almost exactly as Ben predicted.
Skunk Works
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great book on problem solving
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This is a fantastic read,however
This story is unmatched it makes me proud to be an American, and the Skunk Works could only happen here in a free country and under a profound free enterprise system. However why does an author,any author suppose that by frequent taking the name of the Lord in vain makes this or any story more real or authentic is beyond me and is extremely offensive and as a result will not pass on an otherwise wonderful story. This is not only unacceptable but extremely offensive. D J
Great....However
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A Good Read
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