- Ben Rich
Benjamin Robert Rich (
June 18 1925 –January 5 1995 ) was the second director of Lockheed'sSkunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder,Kelly Johnson . Regarded as the "father of stealth,"Fact|date=August 2008 Ben Rich was responsible for leading the development of theF-117 , the first production stealth aircraft. He also worked on theF-104 , U-2, SR-71, A-12, and F-22 among others, many of which are still classified.Early in life
Rich was born in
Manila in thePhilippines , one of the five children of British lumber mill superintendent Isidore Rich and his French wife, Annie, the daughter of one of his paternal grandfather'sJewish customers who resided in Alexandria, Egypt. The Rich family was one of the firstJewish families to settle inManila . Having fled thePhilippines just weeks before the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor , they moved to theUnited States in 1942, where Ben Rich became a naturalized US citizen. He worked (with his father) in aLos Angeles, California machine shop duringWorld War II , and studied at the city's Hamilton High School. After the war he started his college education when he was 21, majoring inmechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, followed by a master's degree inthermodynamics at UCLA, instead of in the medical field as he originally planned.Lockheed
Upon graduation Rich was hired by Lockheed as a theromodynamicist. There he worked on a variety of projects - he was awarded a
patent for designing anichrome heating system which prevented Navy patrol plane crew'spenis es from freezing to their urine elimination pipes. He designedinlet ducts for theF-104 Starfighter , theC-130 transport aircraft, and the F-90 fighter.The Skunk Works
In December 1954 Rich was seconded to the
Skunk Works , the secret research and development section run by Lockheed's chief engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. There he designed theinlet ducts for the U-2 spy plane. Then he led the effort to build large-scalehydrogen liquefaction plant for a proposed hydrogen-powered supersonic aircraft, codenamed "Suntan". After this was canceled when hydrogen proved to be impractical, Rich was program manager for the propulsion systems for the U-2's successor, theSR-71 Blackbird . The idea to paint the high-speed aircraft's skin black, to help dissipate the tremendous frictional heat, was Rich's. He designed the engine inlet cones, the air conditioning system, and was the chief thermodynamicist for the project.Later, as Johnson's successor as leader of the
Skunk Works , Rich championed the early prototypes ofstealth technology and led the development of theF-117 stealth fighter.Awards
A member of the
National Academy of Engineering , he won numerous awards during his career, including theCollier Trophy . In 2005 he was inducted into theNational Aviation Hall of Fame .Family
In 1950, he married the former Faye Mayer, a fashion model, who died in 1980. In 1982, he married Hilda Elliot. He died of cancer in
Ventura, California , onJanuary 5 ,1995 . His son, Michael, is an executive with theRAND Corporation and his daughter, Karen, is a botanist.elected Aircraft
*
F-104 Single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft.
*F-90 Experimental fighter / bomber escort aircraft.
*U-2 Reconnaissance aircraft. A high altitude jet aircraft used by the CIA and the US Air Force during the cold war.*
SR-71 SR-71 "Blackbird". An advanced, long-range, Mach 3.2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The Blackbird was designed to provide reconnaissance in defended airspace while improving aircrew survivability. In the Blackbird, mission success and survivability depended on aircraft speed. Ben Rich was responsible for engineering the spikes and engine inlet systems which made the Blackbirds the fastest jet aircraft in the world.*
F-117 The Nighthawk, world's first production stealth aircraft.
*YF-22 Prototype of F-22 Raptor.References
* Rich, Ben; Janos, Leo. (1996) "Skunk Works". Little, Brown & Company, ISBN 0-316-74300-3
* [http://www.f-117a.com/Ben.html F-117a.com biography of Ben Rich]
* [http://nationalaviation.blade6.donet.com/components/content_manager_v02/view_nahf/htdocs/menu_ps.asp?NodeID=-371222602&group_ID=1134656385&Parent_ID=-1 Rich's biography] in the National Aviation Hall of Fame
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