Skunk Works Read-AlongFollow the aircraft as they go from calculation to prototype to something the Air Force will admit exists. Each chapter shows which machines are flying, who is allowed to know about them, and how much of them radar can still find. Nothing appears before the book has told you about it.
Chapter 1: A Promising Start1975-1976 · A Soviet physics paper, a shape nobody wanted to fly, and a pole in the desertRich takes over the Skunk Works from Kelly Johnson and bets it on an idea most of the building thinks is absurd: that radar return depends on shape, and that shape can be calculated in advance. A translated Soviet paper supplies the mathematics, a faceted model supplies the form, and a competitive pole test supplies the proof.
What radar sees, so far
B-52 ~100 m²
F-15 ~25 m²
Have Blue ~.01 m²
A logarithmic scale, largest return at the top. Rich describes these by comparison rather than by number, so the values are approximations used only for spacing.
Classified
Have Blue · XST demonstratorAn idea on a drafting table, not yet an aircraftNot yet built
Known up to this chapter
It begins as a calculation rather than a design. Denys Overholser finds that a paper by a Soviet physicist, published openly and ignored at home, gives a way to predict how a flat surface scatters radar.
The resulting shape is so ugly and so aerodynamically hostile that it is nicknamed the Hopeless Diamond before anyone knows whether it works.
Kelly Johnson, whose instincts built everything the Skunk Works is known for, thinks Rich is wrong. That disagreement is the chapter's real drama.
On the radar range the model does not merely test well. The measuring equipment cannot find it at all, which reads at first as a malfunction.
Who is on it: Ben Rich, Kelly Johnson, Denys Overholser, Bill Schroeder