Lockheed Skunk Works Chief Ben Rich remark to Jim Goodall

Famous aerospace author and photographer, Jim Goodall, a curator of Seattle Museum of Flight, citing Lockheed Skunk Works chief Ben Rich

We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity.. anything you can imagine we already know how to do.

Ben Rich
Benjamin R. (Ben) Rich graduated from Berkley with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1949 at the age of 25. Rich originally wanted to become a doctor. In 1949 Rich decided to get a master's degree from UCLA specializing in both "aeronautical engineering and dateing soriety girls." Rich came to Lockheed in 1950 after recieveing a degree aeronautical engineering. In December 1954 he was summoned to the Skunk Works by Kelly Johnson as a 29 year old thermodynamisist earning $87 dollars a week. Kelly had requested to borrow from the main plant "a thermodynamicist, preferably a smart one" to solve an unspecified problem. Ben Rich's first assignment with the Skunk Works was the intake on the XF-104 Starfighter. Rich would soon work on the U-2, the A-12, YF-12, Sr-71, and D-21 programs. He joined the SR-71 program in it's inital stages in 1958, and as a thermodynamicist, personally suggested that the Blackbird family of aircraft be painted black to reduce surface temperatures.



In 1975 Rich succeeded Johnson as the head of Skunk Works and as a Lockheed vice president in 1977. Rich during this period focused the Skunk Works on the creating the F-117A. In 1977 when the XST made it's first flight, retired Kelly Johnson slapped Rich on the back and yelled "Well, Ben, you got your first airplane." In 1984-86 he served as interm president of Lockheed's Advanced Aeronautical Company, after which he promptly returned to head up Skunk Works once again. In May 1990 when the Skunk Works became a independent company, Ben Rich was named the company's first president and "Chief Skunk." In December 1990 while the first deployment of F-117A's were heading to Saudi Arabia for DESERT SHEILD, Rich retired from Skunk Works.




Ben Rich (and the entire F-117A team) won the 1989 Collier Trophy, was a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), recieved the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) national aircraft design award in 1972, was selected the 1988 Wright Brothers annual lecturer by both the AIAA and the British Royal Aeronautical Society, and in 1991 was elected an honorary fellow of the AIAA. In 1994, Ben Rich published his memoirs "Skunk Works."



On January 5, 1995 Ben Rich died from cancer at age 69. At his request, his ashes were scattered from an airplane near his beachfront house on the California coast in Oxnard. At the moment his ashes were released, a lone F-117A appeared out of the clouds and dipped its wings in a final salute to its creator.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• lockheed
• skunk
• works
• ben
• rich
• stealth
• black
• aircraft
• aurora
• jim
• goodall

[jcdough]

God Bless our Friends at the so-called "Skunk works". We, who believe and understand the pragmatic ways of the real world, want to know how far we have really come from the recent past. I want our scientists to release the truth and shut down those that hold an inordinate amount of influence over the "free" world so humanity can finally achieve its goals.

The Saudi rule needs to end.

Please, God, let them finally be able to release all the great things they have discovered and developed.

[IRSFRAUDEXPOSED]

i live in nevada desert its true ive seen many craft with anti gravity power. ive seen them test flight of many anti gravity engines and ive been upclose to a small fleet of craft all anti gravity

[sorova]

@kirbyroxy Err yes, with a lot of help from ET's! besides, this is not a time for national bondaries. It is good to see that humans can do such things.

[vmaldia]

@jcdough I do agree that what they have done in stretching the boundaries in science and tech might eventually benefit ordinary people. But I still dont believe in aliens and secret FTL spacecraft

[smokingun7]

@snowbird552 this is confirmed

[kirbyroxy]

@kirbyroxy because they would show it off and they whould have already hade there j20 in survas and there j20 would be better than how shity it is now they cant even biuld 5th genaretion engins and they would have fucking came out with it 10 years ago oh and china cant find the blue prints they stoll and they would have better stuff in survace i bet you didnt think that over

[kirbyroxy]

u dont see china developing stuff like this USA USA USA USA!!!!

[randalljones58]

Used to work there in burbank. I didn't know I was working for the enslavment and extermination of mankind, at the hands of the military industrial complex.

[Aparsanlal]

Can some please tell me the name of this documentary or film? I would really like to see the rest of it. I have always been a fan of Lockheed Martin and Skunk Works and I have never seen this clip before.

[IRSFRAUDEXPOSED]

@snowbird552 sure they can , but we stood in front of 6 of these god dam things so i know they exist , as for the rest of the story i do not know about. and yes if i had not encountered them i would not believe this guys story either. hell like i said the craft are real but i have questions to the rest, maybe he took the photos of the craft and made up the rest later but those fucking things are here

[snowbird552]

@IRSFRAUDEXPOSED You may want to read my comment again. I never said that particular video was blurry. I would say the video falls into the 'No proof'' category. Like I said, anyone can make a costume or prop.