Reddit reviews Kelly: More Than My Share of It All

the F-117 was basically designed with a slide-ruler, pen and paper with very little computer power behind it. Most of it is a series of 2d renderings put together. They literally had engineers designing and building them on the floor right next to the mechanics and welders and shit. The Skunk Works were an impressive bunch.

http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

Go read it, its amazing.

Also, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson has some insight into it with his book, too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0874744911

From my understanding, they have small, concealable radar observable popups. And that fact highlights the difficulty of defeating radar return. Per Kelly Johnson's book, More Than My Share of it all. He made a comment that if a surface resulted in a radar return the size of the return was irrelevant to the size of that reflecting surface. I have no idea what that means but, with these small popups, the aircraft is clearly seen on radar. Another reason why stealth is so hard to duplicate for other countries.

I do know that what took the F-117 to the F-35 was nothing less than high use of supercomputing.

Also, There are optimal angles for the lowest cross-section. This fact is preprogrammed into the flight plan and usually in autopiloted control to avoid variances.

• J. W. Young: A Technique for Producing Ideas
  
  
• B. Cordell: Designing Audio Power Amplifiers
  
  
• K. Johnson: More Than My Share of It All
  
  
• T. Heyerdal: Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft
  
  
• R. Coram: Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
  
  
• T. Frederiksen (used only): Intuitive IC OpAmps

Kelly, More than My Share of It All by Kelly Johnson (http://www.amazon.com/Kelly-More-Than-Share-All/dp/0874744911) is excellent as well. He's the one who started Skunk Works and was Ben Rich's predecessor and mentor. It's interesting to see the two viewpoints as well on the projects that overlap.

I love the P-38. The engine housing just got longer and longer with the turbo superchargers, until Kelly just said "Fuck it" and made them the fuselage. And I've always loved it when the wing shape is so prominent in the shape of the aircraft.

Apparently it was designed in a matter of weeks, too, which is all kinds of awesome from a design standpoint.

Edit: People interested in it should read his autobiography, where he talks about the design of the P-38, Constellation, U-2, and SR-71. A goddam legend of aerospace design.

Shithead McCuntface Jesus Diaz again without crediting the source where these pics came from.

For those of you who want to know more about those pics, see a lot more such pics and read some more:

1. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All
   
2. Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

Note: I am not an engineer, but I do have some suggestions of things you may like.

Books:

• Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Krantz: Great book about the beginnings of the NASA program, Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, and later. Gene Krantz was a flight director and worked as a test pilot for a long time, and his stories are gripping. Beyond engineering and space, it's a pretty insightful book on leadership in high-stress team situations.
  
  
• Kelly: More Than My Share by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson: This is on my shelf but I haven't read it yet. Kelly Johnson was a pioneer in the world of flight, leading the design and construction of some of the most advanced planes ever built, like the U2 and the SR-71. Kelly's impact on the business of aerospace and project management is immense, definitely a good guy to learn about. Plus he designed the P38 Lightning, without a doubt the most beautiful plane ever built ;)
  
  
• Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of my Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich: A fantastic look at the inside of Lockheed Martin's advanced projects division, the Skunk Works. Ben Rich succeeded Kelly Johnson at Lockheed, so this one is going to overlap with the book above quite a bit. I loved the pace of this one, and it covered a lot more than just the F-117, as the cover would suggest - cool info on the SR-71, U2, F104, the D21 supersonic drone, and stealth technology in general. Beyond that, it provides an inside look at the intricacies of DoD contract negotiation, security/clearance issues, and advanced projects. Awesome book, highly recommend.
  
  
• Elon Musk's Bio by Ashley Vance: A detailed history of all things Musk, I recommend it for the details about SpaceX and the goal to make humans a multi-planetary species. Musk and his (now massive) team are doing it: thinking big, getting their hands dirty, and building/launching/occasionally blowing up cool stuff.
  
  Videos/Games/Blogs/Podcasts:
  
  
• Selenian Boondocks: general space blog, lots of robotics and some space policy
  
  
• Gravity Loss: another space blog, lots about future launch systems
  
  
• The Age of Aerospace: Boeing made a cool series of videos last year for their 100th birthday. Great look at the history of an aerospace mainstay, though it seems a bit self-aggrandizing at times.
  
  
• If you want to kill a ton of time on the computer while mastering the basics of orbital mechanics by launching small green men into space, Kerbal Space Program is for you. Check out /r/kerbalspaceprogram if your interested.
  
  
• Subreddits like /r/spacex, /r/blueorigin, and /r/ula are worth following for space news.
  

It does, and its called More Than My Share Of It All. Its interesting, but i found Ben Rich to be a much better writer. Kellys book is not as interesting (at least to me) but nevertheless a good read.

Yes, and "Kelly: More Than My Share of It All" by the old man himself.

I'd give my left nut just to be able to go an work back to Kelley's time/era... or at least back to an environment where MERIT actually matters more than ass-kissing (and when everything wasn't decided by "consensus" [of idiots].)

I HIGHLY suggest reading kelly's book. Its incredible

http://www.amazon.com/Kelly-More-Than-Share-All/dp/0874744911/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Sorry for a lack of learning materials, but I do have a few biographical pieces:

I liked Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles. It reads a bit like a diary, but is, in fact, a fictional (yet very real) account of Bert's time in the right seat of a B-17. He made it through his 25 missions and was reassigned to P-51s. Unfortunately, he was lost to target fixation/CFIT near the end of the war in Europe. Anyway, his book isn't a great work of literature, but it does very successfully capture the emotion of the school boys who were flying those bombers into hell.

Another, more famous bomber pilot's account of the war as seen through the Italian front, The Wild Blue follows Senator and Presidential candidate George McGovern and his B-24 crew through the war. Much better written than Serenade, but tinged with the politically correct censorship of a politicians memory. Still a wonderful read.

If you like the SR-71, the U-2, the F-104, the Constellation, the P-80, the P-38, and/or the Electra, you may be interested in Clarence 'Kelly' Johnson's autobiography, More than my Share of it All. It's short, direct, and cuts straight to the highlight reel of Kelly's life, which still makes it a substantial book. If you don't know, he was the lead engineer at Lockheed and later Skunkworks (when it became a full-time division) for most of his adult life, which means his hands were in every major Lockheed project from WWII until his retirement in the 80's. He has an interesting take on things, and can come across as a bit self-important and McCarthy-ish in his patriotism, but did lead a very interesting life.

edit: also Silent Rescue. Has few redeeming qualities unless you know the guy who wrote it. Then it becomes amazing. (Don't spend your money on this.) Just felt the need to float that title.