So we decided to design a stealthy sub the cigar-shaped hull was shielded by an outer wall of flat, angular surfaces that would bounce sonar signals away and also muffle the engine sounds and the internal noises of crewmen inside the vessel.

Even with such a crude test setup, we discovered that we had reduced the sonar return from that model sub by three orders of magnitude. But how about a stealthy submarine that would be undetectable on sonar? If we had avoided the sonar device built into a Polaroid camera, why couldn’t we avoid sonar returns against submarines or even surface ships specially treated and shaped to escape detection? I had a couple of our engineers buy a small model submarine, put faceted fairings on it, and test it in a sonic chamber. I was always on the prowl, looking for new ideas to expand or exploit technologies we were developing. “Polaroid uses a sound echo device like sonar to focus, and you are getting fuzzy pictures because our stealthy coatings and shaping on that model are interfering with the sound echo.

“Time out! There isn’t a damn thing wrong with your new camera,” I insisted. I slapped my head, knowing we had accidentally stumbled onto an exciting development. Instead of assuming the photographer did not know how to operate the new camera, Rich realized that represented a phenomenon they could incorporate into the design of surface ships and submarines.

What looks like an anomaly or an accident can be an indicator for a significant opportunity. I think I’ve got a defective lens,” he remarked. “I’ve been taking instant view shots of the stealth model, and I’m getting very fuzzy pictures. In THE SPRING of 1978, while we were developing our model for the first stealth airplane, our project photographer stopped me in the hall to complain about defects in a new Polaroid camera we had recently purchased. This post concentrates on his unsuccessful efforts to sell breakthrough systems that leverage stealth to the Navy. Rich had many successes during his leadership of the Skunk Works, notably the F-117 NightHawk stealth fighter. It’s well worth a read for a sense of what it’s like to work on impossible and unthinkable products. It was published in January 1994, a year before Rich’s death from cancer in January of 1995.

“ Skunk Works” by Ben Rich is a candid and very funny memoir by the second leader of Lockheed’s Skunk Works. “The Ship that Never Was” from “Skunk Works” by Ben R. There are a number of lessons for technology entrepreneurs. Rich is a worthy sequel to Kelly Johnson’s “ Kelly: More Than My Share of It All.” It brings the story of the Lockheed Skunkworks, founded by Johnson, up to 1995.

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