Skunk Works by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos

A particularly self-satisfied account of the activities of Lockheed's Skunk Works, the producer of the SR-71, F-117, U-2, F-22 and other marvels.

While I can't deny that John Kelly and Ben Rich built very high performance aircraft, it seems to me that they built very bad high-performance aircraft; aircraft that leaks fuel, uses prodigious amounts of fuel, are so fragile that its tail gets knocked off by a near miss. Such aircraft would not be operated by any real-world air force, but fits in nicely with the US unreality bubble.

A secret environment is closed, and prevents information from coming in as well as it prevents information from going out. So Ben Rich seems to be unaware that a Navy ship needs to have more than one function, and blames Navy empire-building as a reason for its disinterest in Sea Shadow.

The machinations of the CIA described in the book is particularly digusting.