Stealth, Peter Westwick
Stealth, Peter Westwick
2 Rating(s)
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Stealth
The Secret Contest to Invent Invisible Aircraft

Author: Peter Westwick

Narrator: David de Vries

Unabridged: 7 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/04/2021

Synopsis

On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen US aircraft appeared in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes seemed to come from nowhere. Each aircraft was more than sixty feet in length and with a wingspan of forty feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology. And it was devastating.

Radar has been in use since the 1930s and was essential to the Allies in World War II, when American investment in radar exceeded that in the Manhattan Project. The atom bomb ended the war, conventional wisdom has it, but radar won it. That experience also raised a question: could a plane be developed that was invisible to radar? That question, and the seemingly impossible feat of physics and engineering behind it, took on increasing urgency during the Cold War.

Combining nail-biting narrative, incisive explanation of the science and technology involved, and indelible portraits of unforgettable characters, Stealth immerses readers in the story of an innovation with revolutionary implications for modern warfare.

About Peter Westwick

Peter Westwick is a research professor of history at the University of Southern California and director of the Aerospace History Project at the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. He is the author or editor of several books, including Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, 1976-2004, which won book prizes from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Astronautical Society.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David

I was hoping to learn a few things about stealth technology and I did. I was also hoping to enjoy a good story but I did not. A general internet search about stealth technology would have been a better choice for me. This book was so dull and dizzying I can't keep straight which planes were produced......more

Goodreads review by Rod

A well researched and written treatment of the development of stealth technology. The volume is unusual in that it captures the personalities of the various players quite well, but also provides an excellent treatment of the technical essence of stealth at the layman’s level. The author concentrates......more

Goodreads review by Kursad Albayraktaroglu

I have to admit that this book surprised me with its depth and quality of research. I did not have very high expectations of it as I was already familiar with the early histories of the F-117 and B-2 programs, and I was relatively confident that most of the interesting stories behind these two progr......more

Goodreads review by Ben

In "Skunk Works," Ben Rich gave his recollections on the development of stealth warplanes at Lockheed. "Stealth" gives a slightly broader perspective on the story, covering the competition between Lockheed and Northrop. It has at least as many funny anecdotes and factoids. The narrator is a bit more......more

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