There are three or four other small R & D operations doing advanced work other than the Skunk Works. Northrop, for instance, has an able group working on advanced aircraft and missiles; Martin Marietta has a group focusing on short-range tactical missiles. As for the Skunk Works itself, it has specialized in developing surveillance aircraft, and there is a need for a tactical reconnaissance vehicle to supply real-time eyes in combat theaters. I doubt that these will be manned airplanes. The Skunk Works has done some significant work on drones over the years, and I would see this as more economically and militarily feasible than the older U-2 and Blackbird series. I don’t see those kinds of aircraft in our future: between unmanned satellites and unmanned drones, piloted reconnaissance airplanes will be squeezed out within the next five to ten years.
I don’t want to compare the small R & D operations, but they all consist of similar close-knit, can-do, highly technical groups working on advanced and complex problems. They are all self-contained and do not require many people or big budgets, and as far as I am concerned, I am confident that the administration is well over the critical pass in keeping all of them afloat. I would be very concerned otherwise—if we were ignoring them or neglecting them—because I consider them to be vital to the national interest, in both the short and long term.
The Skunk Works’ strength is the autonomy they have enjoyed from management and their close teamwork and partnership with their customers—both unique situations in aerospace. I have been amazed at their ability to focus technical skills in the most effective ways that really counted to problem-solving. They are the best around.
Ben R. Rich died from cancer on January 5, 1995. Ben died as he had lived—with courage, good humor, and resolve. At his request, his ashes were scattered from an airplane near his beachfront house on the California coast in Oxnard. At the moment his ashes were released, a Stealth fighter appeared out of the clouds and dipped its wings in a final salute to its creator.
