Chapter 16, Drawing the Right Conclusions Summary and Analysis

This final chapter contains some reflections from Ben Rich on the current state of the military aircraft industry and its future. He outlines many challenges and suggests many solutions. We will cover some of them.

During Rich's forty years working at Lockheed, he worked on twenty-seven distinct aircraft. Today, most engineers would be lucky to build one. The Cold War is over and the need to constantly build new and better aircraft is no more. However, the post-Cold War era still needs the Skunk Works and Rich believes the concept of Skunk Works should be widely adopted. Heretofore, the model has not been adopted because many do not understand its structure and government managers will not grant most defense companies the necessary independence to operate as Skunk Works has. It takes a great...