Interesting aspects of "Skunk Works" - Kai

 Interesting Aspects of "Skunk Works"

When I was younger one of my favorite books was a book called “the Jet Alphabet Book” by Jerry Pallotta. I could recite almost the whole thing and I can still recite parts of it. My favorite jet was the SR-71 Blackbird. It was a spy plane and it flew at Mach 3, three times the speed of sound. When I was younger I liked the Blackbird because it looked cool and was very fast. So, when I came across “Skunk Works” by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos describing the facility where the SR-71 Blackbird was built, I began reading almost immediately.

I am currently about halfway done with “Skunk Works” by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos. “Skunk Works” describes the facility where many famous US espionage jets were made including the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Nighthawk. The Skunk Works is the official pseudonym for the Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs. “Skunk Works” is told from the 1^st person perspective of Ben Rich and describes the creation of the F-117 Nighthawk, SR-71 Blackbird, U-2, and more spy planes. I found “Skunk Works” very interesting because it explains declassified information on the spy planes. In addition, the book is told from the perspective people other than the narrator at times including pilots who flew the planes discussed in “Skunk Works”. Set between 1945 and 1990, “Skunk Works” reflects the sexism of the time, educating readers on history, as well as planes.

 I really enjoy reading “Skunk Works” because of the attention to detail that is put into each character. Each character is made easier to remember because of unique characteristics in each character. The authors create something a situation in which a character does or says something remarkable, making it easier to remember them. For example, the main character, Ben Rich starts out as a engineer in the Skunk Works. His boss, Kelly Johnson is described as “without the humor. Definitely without that. Johnson was all business and had the reputation of an ogre who ate young, tender engineers for between-the-meal snacks” (Rich and Janos 107-108). Unsurprisingly, this kind of descriptions made characters easy to remember. Even though not all characters were described as eating people, they all have something to remember them by. Some characters had some sort of direct quote that made them easy to remember. Like a general that Ben Rich had gotten on his bad side; “John Chasen (the general) was livid when he found out about it because he hadn’t thought of it first. ‘That goddam Ben Rich’ he fumed” (Rich and Janos 36). These colorful descriptions of otherwise difficult to remember generals and officers makes “Skunk Works” much more interesting to read because I can keep track of who is who.

 Something else that makes “Skunk Works” fun to read the personal accounts of pilots flying the jets discussed in “Skunk Works”. This allows for the reader to get a wider range of views and opinions of what is happening. This is helpful because readers typically get Rich’s view on the planes (Rich is a thermodynamicist) and getting a pilot’s view on the planes is much different. This gives the reader a much fuller understanding of the planes. For me, this writing strategy was very helpful when “Skunk Works” was talking about U-2 surveillance flights over Russia and “Skunk Works” included an account from the pilot that flew over Russia (Rich and Janos 151).

 Since “Skunk Works” is set in the mid-late 1900s there is very prevalent sexism, especially since all the accounts in the book are from white men. There are no female characters in “Skunk Works” aside from Ben Rich’s wife who dies nearly after she is introduced. So, while this prevalent sexism is not fun to read at times, it is important to learn about how society has viewed women throughout even recent history. I think this is especially important because there are still large amounts of sexism in society today. This sexism is seen obviously at times, but often is much less obvious. So, educating ourselves about sexism is very important in society today.

“Skunk Works” by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos tells an interesting story of how spy planes were created in complete secrecy. In addition, “Skunk Works” has interesting and memorable characters making the book more engaging and fun to read. Quotes from people pilots allow readers to more fully understand how the new planes work. The sexism prevalent, while unintentionally, gives the readers a fuller understanding of the time as well as educating them about sexism and history. So for anyone interested in some spy history, history of parts of the Cold War, or a good book to get sucked into, "Skunk Works" is for you!

-Kai