Lockheed Secret Projects : Inside the Skunk Works PDF Download

Author: Dennis R. Jenkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781610607285
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Since 1943, scores of remarkable aircraft have rolled out of the hangars occupied by Lockheed's top-secret Skunk Works program. This in-depth look at the famous research-and-design team's secret projects reveals the nuts and bolts behind aircraft ranging from the P-80 Shooting Star to today's X-35 Joint Strike Fighter prototype. While the emphasis is on high-profile products like the U-2 Dragon Lady, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk and F-22 Raptor, the book also examines Skunk Works projects that have yet to be covered in book form, including the Tier III Minus DarkStar unmanned air vehicle and the X-33 VentureStar orbiter. Photographs from Lockheed and private archives help explain how the Skunk Works have revolutionized military aviation from the jet age to stealth and beyond.

Author: James C. Goodall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472846451
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works was founded in the summer of 1943 to develop a jet-powered high-altitude interceptor for the USAAF, and ever since it has been at the forefront of technological development in the world of aviation. From the XP-80 to the U-2, SR-71, F-117, F-22 and now the F-35, the Skunk Works team has designed aircraft that are the pinnacle of innovation and performance. 75 years of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works takes us through the history of this legendary facility from its foundation at the height of World War II under the talented engineer, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, through to the present day. Illustrated with over a thousand photographs and drawings, it details the 46 unclassified programmes developed by the Skunk Works, following them through prototype build-up, first flight and, if they reached the frontline, operational service.

Author: Steve Pace
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 0760351570
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The stories behind more than 50 secret projects undertaken by the famed Lockheed Martin Skunk Works on behalf of the US Armed Forces, DARPA, and the CIA - all illustrated with official Skunk Works photography and commissioned artworks. Hatched in June 1943 after a special request of the US Army Air Forces to develop a turbojet-powered fighter to counter growing German threats, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has gone on to develop remarkable aeronautical and space technologies, including stealth. Some have made it into production, while others never quite made it off drafting boards and computer screens, but proved fascinating nonetheless. This generously illustrated history tackles Skunk Works programs ranging from jet fighters and jet engines to missiles and rockets, helicopters, research aircraft, airships, unmanned aerial vehicles and recon drones, and even the seagoing stealth ship Sea Shadow - more than 50 in all. Author Steve Pace examines the historical context which led government organizations to approach the Skunk Works, as well as the technologies and projects developed there (often on a handshake and unburdened by bureaucracies), and the anecdotes and legends associated with each program. Pace includes official Skunk Works photography of the projects taken both at its headquarters and at test facilities such as Area 51. In addition, commissioned color artworks help further illustrate many of these projects featured herein. In addition to profiling legendary aircraft like the F-80, F-94, F-104, U-2, SR-71, F-117, and F-35, Pace takes on more obscure projects from the past as well as those still to come, such as the hypersonic SR-72 and High Speed Strike Weapon, and even offers a peak into what the future might hold with the proposed TR-X.

Author: Leo Janos
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 031624693X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
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). From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, 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 twentieth century. "Thoroughly engrossing." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

Author: Jay Miller
Publisher: Midland
ISBN: 9781857800371
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
The first and only official history of the worlds most famous advanced aircraft design bureau youve been waiting for! In a major pulling back of the veil of secrecy, official histories of such noteworthy products as the U-2, A-12, D-21, SR-71 and F-117 are finally brought to light, authentically described by the company and the men who designed and built them. Lists all production quantities, serial numbers, build numbers, significant personalities and technical data. Exceptional!

Author: Peter J. Westwick
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190677449
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The story behind the technology that revolutionized both aeronautics, and the course of history On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen airplanes appeared in the skies over Baghdad. Or, rather, didn't appear. They arrived in the dark, their black outlines cloaking them from sight. More importantly, their odd, angular shapes, which made them look like flying origami, rendered them undetectable to Iraq's formidable air defenses. Stealth technology, developed during the decades before Desert Storm, had arrived. To American planners and strategists at the outset of the Cold War, this seemingly ultimate way to gain ascendance over the USSR was only a question. What if the United States could defend its airspace while at the same time send a plane through Soviet skies undetected? A craft with such capacity would have to be essentially invisible to radar - an apparently miraculous feat of physics and engineering. In Stealth, Peter Westwick unveils the process by which the impossible was achieved. At heart, Stealth is a tale of two aerospace companies, Lockheed and Northrop, and their fierce competition - with each other and with themselves - to obtain what was estimated one of the largest procurement contracts in history. Westwick's book fully explores the individual and collective ingenuity and determination required to make these planes and in the process provides a fresh view of the period leading up to the end of the Soviet Union. Taking into account the role of technology, as well as the art and science of physics and engineering, Westwick offers an engaging narrative, one that immerses readers in the race to produce a weapon that some thought might save the world, and which certainly changed it.

Author: Walter J. Boyne
Publisher: Saint Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 9780312244385
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Explores the many factors that led Lockheed from near bankruptcy in the 1930s to become one of the most successful and innovative aerospace corporations in the world

Author: Richard H. Graham
Publisher: Motorbooks
ISBN: 0760366411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
For anyone who has ever wondered what it's like to fly the SR-71 on a secret Mach 3 reconnaissance mission, this book has the answer. Completely redesigned and updated with photos from author Colonel Richard H. Graham's personal archive, as well as a new introduction, Flying the SR-71 Blackbird details what an SR-71 mission entailed, from planning to donning a pressure suit to returning to base. The Lockheed SR-71, unofficially known as the Blackbird, was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed by Lockheed Skunk Works. The aircraft flew so fast and high that not one was ever shot down, even by a missile. SR-71 pilot and instructor Colonel Richard Graham offers a rare cockpit perspective on how regular Air Force pilots and navigators transformed themselves into SR-71 Blackbird crews, turning their unique aviation talents to account in an unprecedented way. Arguably the world's foremost expert on piloting the Blackbird, Graham takes readers along on an operational mission that only a few Air Force pilots have ever experienced.

Author: Bill Yenne
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 0760361460
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Area 51's most important military aviation developments are profiled in an illustrated format. When most of us think of Area 51, we think of aliens, UFOs, and controversial government cover-ups. It's easy to forget that, since the mid-1950s, the United States' famed extension of Edwards Air Force Base has served as a top-secret CIA testing ground for many of the most groundbreaking advancements in American military aviation technology. In Area 51 - Black Jets, author and military historian Bill Yenne offers the first fully illustrated chronology of Area 51's most famous aircraft projects, including Lockheed's U-2 "Dragon Lady" and SR-71 "Blackbird" reconnaissance planes, drones ranging from the early Lockheed D-21 to the modern-day General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, and the famous F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter produced by the Have Blue program during the 1970s. Each project is given its own fascinating chapter illuminating the aircraft's development at this famed location. But beyond the aircraft themselves, Area 51 - Black Jets also covers a handful of the many classified experimental programs carried out at Area 51 over the years, such as Have Doughnut, Have Ferry, and Have Drill - secret undertakings that successfully reverse-engineered such enemy aircraft as the Russian MiG during the Cold War. Presented in beautiful hardcover format and illustrated with historic color and black-and-white photographs, diagrams, and maps, this book reveals Area 51 for what it truly is: a clandestine area for the United States' most cutting-edge technological innovators in military aviation.

Author: Nick Cook
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307419436
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
This riveting work of investigative reporting and history exposes classified government projects to build gravity-defying aircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flying saucers. The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy government scientists in the 1940s. Antigravity technology, originally spearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another high priority, one that still may be in effect today. Now for the first time, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in the intelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidence that tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove as powerful as the A-bomb. The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation that a "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can be replicated here on Earth. The pressure to be the first nation to harness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to build military planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the most deadly weaponry the world has ever seen. The ideal shape for a gravity-defying vehicle happens to be a perfect disk, making antigravity tests a possible explanation for the numerous UFO sightings of the past 50 years. Chronicling the origins of antigravity research in the world's most advanced research facility, which was operated by the Third Reich during World War II, The Hunt for Zero Point traces U.S. involvement in the project, beginning with the recruitment of former Nazi scientists after the war. Drawn from interviews with those involved with the research and who visited labs in Europe and the United States, The Hunt for Zero Point journeys to the heart of the twentieth century's most puzzling unexplained phenomena.