And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It's a good read concerning the inner workings of the famous Skunkworks, and a personal insight to the brilliant mind of Kelly Johnson via one who worked closely with him. One thing that sticks in my mind was the sales technique used by the Lockheed reps to impress the bigwigs at the Pentagon just what the technology could offer. Usually the radar return of an aircraft was described in terms of being like 'the side of a barn' or a Cessna, or a flock of birds, etc.
Lockheed computed the radar return of the new plane to equal the size of a ball bearing smaller than the eyeball of an eagle, and provided a bag of these (an appropriately sized ball bearing, not an eagle's eyeball, heh heh) to their sales team to roll across the polished desks of the generals, thus providing a dramatic moment that stuck in the mind of the purchaser. Stealth aviation was born.
It's a good read concerning the inner workings of the famous Skunkworks, and a personal insight to the brilliant mind of Kelly Johnson via one who worked closely with him. One thing that sticks in my mind was the sales technique used by the Lockheed reps to impress the bigwigs at the Pentagon just what the technology could offer. Usually the radar return of an aircraft was described in terms of being like 'the side of a barn' or a Cessna, or a flock of birds, etc.
ReplyDeleteLockheed computed the radar return of the new plane to equal the size of a ball bearing smaller than the eyeball of an eagle, and provided a bag of these (an appropriately sized ball bearing, not an eagle's eyeball, heh heh) to their sales team to roll across the polished desks of the generals, thus providing a dramatic moment that stuck in the mind of the purchaser. Stealth aviation was born.
Welcome, you will enjoy it!
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