Benjamin Robert Rich (June 18, 1925 – January 5, 1995) was an American engineer and the second Director of Lockheed's

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the Lockheed P-38 Lightn ...

from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder, Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth", Rich was responsible for leading the development of the

F-117 The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational airc ...

, the first production

stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology **Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Stea ...

aircraft. He also worked on the

F-104 The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed as one of the "C ...

, U-2, A-12,

SR-71 The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. It was operated by the United States Air Force ...

, and

F-22 The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is an American single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). As the result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, t ...

, among others.

Early in life

Rich was born in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital city, capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is Cities of the Philippines#Independent cities, highly urbanize ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. He was one of five children of British lumber mill superintendent Isidore Rich and his French wife, Annie, the daughter of one of his paternal grandfather's Jewish customers who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. The Rich family was one of the first Jewish families to settle in

. Having fled the

just weeks before the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent for ...

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawa ...

, they moved to the United States in 1942, where Rich became a naturalized US citizen. He worked (with his father) in a Los Angeles, California, machine shop during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and studied at Alexander Hamilton High School. After the war he started his college education when he was 21, majoring in mechanical engineering at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, followed by a master's degree in

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

, instead of the medical field as originally planned. He would later complete the Advanced Management Program at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

Career

Lockheed

Upon graduation Rich was hired by Lockheed as a thermodynamicist. There he worked on a variety of projects - he was awarded a patent for designing a

nichrome Nichrome (also known as NiCr, nickel-chromium or chromium-nickel) is a family of alloys of nickel, chromium, and often iron (and possibly other elements) commonly used as resistance wire, heating elements in devices like toasters, electrical kettl ...

heating system which prevented Navy patrol plane crew members' penises from freezing to their urine elimination pipes. He designed

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ma ...

ducts for the

F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the " Century Series" of ...

, the

C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally des ...

transport aircraft, and the F-90 fighter.

The Skunk Works

In December 1954 Rich transferred to the

, the secret research and development section run by Lockheed's Chief Engineer, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. There he designed the inlet ducts for the U-2, then led the effort to design and build a large-scale

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...

liquefaction plant for project '' Suntan'', a proposed hydrogen-powered supersonic very high-altitude aircraft to replace the U-2. After Suntan was canceled, Rich became propulsion systems program manager for the U-2's successors, the A-12 and the

SR-71 Blackbird The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. It was operated by the United States Air Force ...

. Rich was chief aerodynamicist for the projects, designer of the shock cone engine inlet, air conditioning and heat management systems. He was also involved in the specification of the aircraft's black skin coatings which optimized dissipation of their tremendous

aerodynamic heating Aerodynamic heating is the heating of a solid body produced by its high-speed passage through air. In science and engineering, an understanding of aerodynamic heating is necessary for predicting the behaviour of meteoroids which enter the earth's ...

as well as incorporating materials to reduce radar signature. The aircraft incorporated features that were later referred to as low observables or

stealth technology Stealth technology, also termed low observable technology (LO technology), is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive and active electronic countermeasures, which covers a range of military technology, methods used to make personnel, S ...

. When SR-71 crews became upset that engineers were not putting enough effort into solving a constant problem with violent engine unstarts in flight, Rich considered taking a flight in the SR-71 to experience the phenomenon himself, which included having to go through the same flight physical as pilots. He did not go through with the flight. He did eventually manage the problem by installing automatic controllers to maintain aircraft control during unstarts. He briefly worked on a program that used ionizing radiation to help absorb radar coming from ahead of the aircraft. The radiation proved to be excessive and the test pilot disliked the heavy radiation shielding he had to wear. The project was cancelled when the military decided the radar signature was sufficiently low enough without the ionizing equipment. The concept was proven to work, but unfeasible. Later, as

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

's successor as leader of the

, Rich championed and directed the early experimental prototypes of

and led the development of the

stealth fighter. He is the author of ''Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed''.

Awards

A member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

, he won numerous awards during his career, including the

Collier Trophy The Robert J. Collier Trophy is an annual aviation award administered by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association (NAA), presented to those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to im ...

. In 2005 he was inducted into the

National Aviation Hall of Fame The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with it ...

. In January 1981, he received the

Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service is the highest award that is presented by the Secretary of Defense, to a private citizen, politician, non-career federal employee, or foreign national. It is presented for exception ...

for his work on the then-still-classified stealth airplane, in a secret ceremony in the office of then- Secretary of Defense Harold Brown. He was allowed to show the medal to his two children, Karen and Michael, but was not allowed to tell them why he had received it.''Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed'' (paperback edition), , p. 73.

Personal life

In 1950, Rich married Faye Mayer, a fashion model, who died in 1980. In 1982, Rich married Hilda Elliot. His son, Michael, was the president and CEO of

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financ ...

and his daughter, Karen, is a botanist.

Death

Rich died of

esophageal cancer Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse vo ...

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura ( Spanish for " Saint Bonaventure"), is a city on the Southern Coast of California and the county seat of Ventura County. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist d ...

, on January 5, 1995.

Selected aircraft

Starfighter. Single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft. * XF-90. Experimental fighter / bomber escort aircraft. * U-2 "Dragon Lady". Reconnaissance aircraft. A high altitude jet aircraft used by the CIA and the US Air Force during the cold war. *

"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. *

Nighthawk. World's first production stealth aircraft. * YF-22, prototype of the

F-22 Raptor The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is an American single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). As the result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, t ...

References

External links

Rich's biography
in the National Aviation Hall of Fame

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rich, Ben 1925 births 1995 deaths Filipino emigrants to the United States Lockheed people Collier Trophy recipients National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees People from Manila Naturalized citizens of the United States Lockheed Martin people Deaths from esophageal cancer Deaths from cancer in California UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni